50th Anniversary Commemoration

Commemorating the Kennedy Legacy

On May 29, 2019, the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site celebrated President Kennedy’s 102nd birthday, the 35th anniversary of the Coolidge Corner School’s program “What JFK Means to Me”, and the 50th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site’s opening day.

Historians sit at a table in the backyard of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site. Ranger Jim Roberts stands at a podium with flags behind. — Supervisory Park Ranger Jim Roberts introduces historians Seth Blumenthal (moderator), Fredrik Logevall, David Nasaw, and Barbara Perry as part of a panel discussion on President Kennedy's legacy.
NPS / Matt Teuten

President Kennedy had both a love of history and a vision for America’s future. He understood that through preservation of the nation’s natural and cultural resources, that future generations would be enriched.
Fifty years ago on May 29, 1969, Mrs. Joseph P. Kennedy, held a public ceremony and established this house as a gift to the American people. She said, “So that future generations will be able to visit it and see how people lived in 1917 and thus get a better appreciation of the history of this wonderful country.”
We remain thankful for her gift to us and the special opportunity that we have to preserve and interpret the memories of her family’s early years in Brookline. It was in this house, where she and her husband Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. started their lives as newlyweds, brought their first four children into the world, and laid the foundation for what would become, one of the most prolific political family dynasties in American history.