Date: October 24, 2011
Contact: Jim Roberts, 617-566-7937 x10
Brookline, MA -John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site (NHS) will close for the season following a special Halloween event on Monday, October 31. The site will be closed from November 1, 2011 until May 2012.
On October 31, John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS will host a special Halloween program from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. National Park Rangers will greet trick-or-treaters at the front of the house, where there will be a photographic display, "Kennedy Halloweens." Trick-or-treaters will receive a chocolate JFK half-dollar and a John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS post-card. The house will not be open for tours during this Halloween evening program. For further information, please call 617-566-7937, Wednesday through Sunday.
During the visitor season, guided house tours at John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS are offered Wednesday through Sunday, beginning at 9:30 AM with the final tour at 3:30 PM. From 4:00 to 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. 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 1967, 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 free. Normal usage rates apply. To access the tour, dial 617-992-9172. The tour can also be accessed via the web at http://myoncell.mobi/16179929172.
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.
-NPS-
