News Release

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Marks The End of its 50th Season

The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site decorated with jack-o-lanterns for Halloween

NPS

News Release Date: October 16, 2019

Contact: Jim Roberts, 617-566-7937

Brookline, MA – John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site’s 2019 visitor season ends on Wednesday, October 30, 2019. On Thursday, October 31, Halloween Night, John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS Park Rangers will greet trick-or-treaters 5:00 – 8:00 PM. with a Halloween packet featuring a limited edition bookmark and chocolate treat commemorating the 50^th Anniversary of the Opening of John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS. Outdoor exhibits featuring “Summer of ’69,” “The Space Race,” and “Kennedy Halloweens” will be on display. The house will not be open for tours on Thursday, October 31, and during the Halloween event. For more information, please call [phone], visit us online at www.nps.gov/jofi, or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jfkennedynhs.

During the regular visitor season, guided house tours at John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS are offered Wednesday through Sunday, beginning at 10:00 AM with the final tour at 3:30 PM. From 12:00–1:00 PM and 4:00–5:00PM, visitors are welcome to follow a self-guided audio tour through the house. Hand-held audio-players are available in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. Supplemental printed material about the house is available in English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese. Admission is free to all.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS preserves the birthplace (1917) and early boyhood home of the 35th president of the United States. The modest house was the first home shared by the president’s parents, Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. John, the second of nine children, spent his formative years in Brookline as his family began its rise to national prominence. In 1966, Mrs. Kennedy returned to 83 Beals Street to commemorate her son’s life, restoring the birthplace to her recollection of its 1917 appearance.

Today, National Park Rangers provide tours of the nine-room house where Kennedy family furnishings, photographs, and mementos personally collected and arranged by the president’s mother are on exhibit. A taped narrative, featuring Mrs. Kennedy in her own words, is a unique and evocative addition to both the ranger-led and self-guided tours. John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS also invites visitors to step back into 1917 and share Mrs. Kennedy’s memories of her family’s early home via cell phone. The cell phone tour is available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. The cell phone tour is free. Normal usage rates apply. To access the tour, dial [phone]. The tour can also be accessed via the web at https://jofi.oncell.com.

A small visitor center offers exhibits, a film, bookstore, and restroom. A self-guided tour of the neighborhood is also included in the site brochure and identifies nearby Brookline sites associated with the Kennedy family.