Rose Kennedy stood in front of 83 Beals Street in Brookline on May 29, 1969, and presented the house as a National Historic Site and museum in honor of her late son President John F. Kennedy. On the same day five decades later the John F. Kennedy National Historic Site celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of that moment.
Jason Atsales, lead Park Ranger, education coordinator and volunteer coordinator at the site, left his job as a teacher to become a ranger. He had the JFK site in mind. Atsales says he’s still teaching the public, but it’s a lesser-known side of history. “Our focus is mostly on the early years of JFK,” says Atsales. “This is a story they haven’t necessarily heard.”
Rather than focusing on the tragic and well-known assassination narrative, the team at the JFK National Historic Site describes what life was like for the family during their early days in Brookline. “I think Brookline is a very special community,” Atsales says. Rose and Joseph P. Kennedy likely chose Brookline as a home base for reasons including its school system, vibrant downtown, high walkability, and convenient public transit access to the city.
This year also marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Coolidge Corner School Essay and Poetry Program. JFK attended the school through third grade, so third graders are given an exclusive tour of the home every year and invited to submit class poems and essays about what JFK means to them. At the May 29 celebration earlier this year the students read their class poems during the program.
The private home was purchased before the Kennedys became extravagantly wealthy, so it reflects a typical middle-class lifestyle. Atsales says a lot of people are surprised at how relatable the living quarters are. Guests can listen to an audio guide of Rose Kennedy talking about their experience living in the home. This guide can also be found online. For insatiable history appetites, there’s also a neighborhood tour which walks by the house down the street that the Kennedy’s moved to a few years after JFK’s birth.
Now is the time to visit the museum, it will be closing in October for renovations to the visitor’s center. These upgrades will include a wheelchair lift and additional accessible restrooms. In celebration of the 50th anniversary, the site has a special exhibit on view in their visitors’ center about the process of restoring the house to its original style.
Though the years keep passing, Atsales says the balance of past and present in the home is eternally relevant. “He [JFK] was really able to articulate this vision for the future while conjuring remembrances of the past,” says Atsales. “History has a lot to teach us.”
