News Release

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Opens for the 2019 Season on May 18

News Release Date: April 8, 2019 John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS News Release April 5, 2019
Jim Roberts, 617-566-7937 xt 10  
 

 

The JFK Birthplace Celebrates its 50^th Anniversary and Opens for the 2019 Season.

Brookline, Mass. – John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site (NHS) opens for the summer season on Saturday, May 18, 2019. At 2:00 p.m. on Opening Day, award-winning author and Rice University professor of history Dr. Douglas Brinkley will discuss his new book, American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race. Admission is free.
No reservations are needed, but seating is limited.

On May 29, the 102^nd birthday of President Kennedy, the site  commemorates the 50th Anniversary of its official opening with a special ceremony, featuring the 35th Annual Coolidge Corner School program “What JFK Means to Me”. The ceremony  takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in front of the JFK birthplace at 83 Beals Street, Brookline, MA. Event includes presidential biographers Fredrik Logevall, David Nasaw, and Barbara Perry. The authors will also participate in a panel discussion on “JFK’s Legacy” at 2:00 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not needed, but seating is limited.
For more information please call [phone], or visit www.nps.gov/jofi.

Visitor hours in 2019 are from 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Guided tours of JFK’s birthplace will be available on the hour and the half-hour from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with the final, ranger-led tour beginning at 3:30 p.m. From 12:00-1:00 p.m. and 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., self-guided options are available. Visitors are welcome to follow Mrs. Kennedy's self-guided tour through the first and second floors of the house. Hand-held audio-players are available so that visitors may follow the tour in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese. A ranger-guided virtual tour is also available. Admission is free.   

John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS preserves the birthplace 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 F. Kennedy, the second of nine children, spent his formative years in Brookline as his family began its rise to national prominence. The president’s mother Mrs. Rose Kennedy returned to 83 Beals Street in 1967 to commemorate her son’s life, recreating his 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 Mrs. Kennedy are on exhibit. In addition to ranger-guided tours, John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS invites visitors to step back in time and share Mrs. Kennedy’s memories of her family’s early home via cell phone; normal usage rates apply. One can also take a virtual ranger-led tour of the site and another of the North Brookline neighborhood. To access these tours, dial 617-992-9172. The tours can also be accessed via the web at https://jofi.oncell.com.

During the May to October visitor season, park rangers offer guided tours of the house and JFK’s boyhood neighborhood. Children ages 5­­­ –12 can participate in the site’s Junior Ranger program. Printed materials, including brochures and tour books, are available in Chinese, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Hungarian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS is located just outside Coolidge Corner at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The site is a ½ mile-walk from the Coolidge Corner T-Stop (Green Line, C-Cleveland Circle). Free on-street parking is available on Beals Street for up to two (2) hours. For more information please call [phone], or visit www.nps.gov/jofi.