(already subscribe? log in).

Kennedys’ Cape home donated to institute

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 31, 2012|By Frank Phillips

The home of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, after his death in 2009. After 84 years… (Stew Milne/Associated…)

The clan gathered there in 1960 to celebrate John F. Kennedy’s presidential election. They gathered there again decades later to mourn his son’s death. It is where Senator Edward M. Kennedy died.

Now the home, one of the most significant in American politics, will no longer be in the family’s possession.

The ownership of the nearly $5.5 million, 21-room house that is the center of the Hyannis Port compound is being transferred to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United State Senate, a move that brings to an end the family’s 84-year ownership of the homestead.

In a statement yesterday, the institute announced that Edward Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, has donated the waterfront homestead for use as a study center run by the institute, which she has led since her husband’s death. The statement said the transfer “fulfills a promise made by Senator Kennedy to his mother, Rose, that the home be preserved for charitable use.’’

The institute also will develop a plan to open the estate for visits by the general public. This possibility has been a major concern for neighbors who don’t want the area to become a tourist destination. Kennedy’s political committee donated the $3.2 million remaining in his campaign account to the institute to help maintain the family’s historic home.

The house has been at the epicenter of some of the most dramatic moments in modern political history. It is the centerpiece of the famed Kennedy compound, which includes houses owned by President Kennedy and his brother Robert F. Kennedy. These will remain in the family.

In his will, the late senator decreed that Vicki Kennedy would control the property, with the wish that it would someday be used as a center where scholars and public figures gather to ponder public policy issues in seminars and forums. Vicki Kennedy’s friends and associates said she never wanted to use the house much, because it evoked too many sad memories of her husband. The senator died in 2009 at age 77.

“From our earliest discussions about the EMK Institute, Teddy and I dreamed of a place that would encourage public engagement and inspire political leadership in future generations,’’ Kennedy said in a statement.

Initially, the proposal to remove the house, which makes up the heart of the compound, from family control raised some concern within the family. But the announcement came with statements of support from several Kennedys, including the last surviving sibling of the president’s generation, Jean Kennedy Smith.

“This house was my family’s epicenter, where my grandparents, father, uncles, and aunts would retreat to connect with one another through heated political debates in the dining room and rousing games on the front lawn,’’ said Ted Kennedy Jr. yesterday.