BOSTON —
The main house on the Kennedys' oceanfront compound, the scene of
many of the famed political family's gatherings in times of joy and sorrow, has
been donated to an institute named for the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
The Boston-based institute on Monday released a statement
announcing the transaction, which it said was in keeping with the wishes of the
late senator, who promised his mother the Hyannis Port home would be preserved
for charitable use. The institute said the house would host seminars and
educational programs and eventually would be opened to the general public.
Ted Kennedy's son Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Island
congressman, said there could be "no greater testament to his legacy"
than allowing the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate to
turn the home into a place of learning.
"My father had great passion for the United States Senate,"
he said. "It was his life for many years."
The 12-bedroom, 9,000-square-foot house hosted the family's
famous touch football games, the wedding of Patrick Kennedy and the wedding
reception for Ted Kennedy's niece Caroline Kennedy. It was the summer White
House for President John F. Kennedy and was the place the family gathered after
he was assassinated in 1963.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999, the
family met to mourn there. And Ted Kennedy spent his final days there before
dying of brain cancer in 2009.
Ted Kennedy Jr. called the house "my family's
epicenter," a place that hosted outdoor games and vigorous political debate
as well as "times of both happiness and pain."
"Even though my family still considers Hyannis Port to be our
home, we recognize that this house is a unique and historic place that should
be preserved so that future students of history and politics will better
understand how this house helped to develop, define and sustain my
family," he said.
The late senator's parents, Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald
Kennedy, bought the property in 1928. His widow, Vicki Kennedy, most recently
lived at the house, which sits on roughly 2 acres in Cape Cod and is valued at
$5.5 million.
The plans to donate the house initially raised concerns from some
Kennedy family members, who worried about the privacy of those still living in
neighboring houses and about preserving beachfront access and the overall
character of the compound.
On Monday, the institute said Kennedy family members living there
will still get access to the beach through the grounds and will be allowed limited recreational access to
the property.
The institute said it will assemble a team of experts, including
historian Michael Beschloss, to make recommendations on property usage,
programming and public visitations.
NOTE:
I just came across this story, picked up everywhere.
Unthinkable
to imagine large-scale tax advantages accruing to the Kennedy family from this
"charitable donation," right?
Recreational
use by the family, beach access, scholarly seminars, eventual public
access. Sounds legitimate, no?
A fun exercise –Try, if you can, to determine who sits on
the board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
This Link takes you to an article
detailing some of the enormous public costs to date occasioned by the Kennedy
family commissioning -- At Your Expense -- their enormous equestrian statue.
Pictured
immediately above this Note is a map showing the proposed wind farm location
strenuously opposed by the late senior senator from Massachusetts and his nephew, Robert F.
Kennedy, Jr., the selectively principled environmentalist.
NIMBY (although they wouldn't say so).
I don't like wind farms either. The amount of deception contained in this
press release disguised as a news story is beyond breathtaking.
Occupy Hyannis Port!
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