BOSTON —
The main house on the Kennedys' oceanfront compound, the scene ofmany of the famed political family's gatherings in times of joy and sorrow, hasbeen donated to an institute named for the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
The Boston-based institute on Monday released a statementannouncing the transaction, which it said was in keeping with the wishes of thelate senator, who promised his mother the Hyannis Port home would be preservedfor charitable use. The institute said the house would host seminars andeducational programs and eventually would be opened to the general public.
Ted Kennedy's son Patrick Kennedy, a former Rhode Islandcongressman, said there could be "no greater testament to his legacy"than allowing the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate toturn 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'sfamous touch football games, the wedding of Patrick Kennedy and the weddingreception for Ted Kennedy's niece Caroline Kennedy. It was the summer WhiteHouse for President John F. Kennedy and was the place the family gathered afterhe was assassinated in 1963.
When John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash in 1999, thefamily met to mourn there. And Ted Kennedy spent his final days there beforedying of brain cancer in 2009.
Ted Kennedy Jr. called the house "my family'sepicenter," a place that hosted outdoor games and vigorous political debateas well as "times of both happiness and pain."
"Even though my family still considers Hyannis Port to be ourhome, we recognize that this house is a unique and historic place that shouldbe preserved so that future students of history and politics will betterunderstand how this house helped to develop, define and sustain myfamily," he said.
The late senator's parents, Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose FitzgeraldKennedy, bought the property in 1928. His widow, Vicki Kennedy, most recentlylived 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 someKennedy family members, who worried about the privacy of those still living inneighboring houses and about preserving beachfront access and the overallcharacter of the compound.
On Monday, the institute said Kennedy family members living therewill still get access to the beach through the grounds and will be allowed limited recreational access tothe property.
The institute said it will assemble a team of experts, includinghistorian Michael Beschloss, to make recommendations on property usage,programming and public visitations.
NOTE:
I just came across this story, picked up everywhere.
Unthinkableto imagine large-scale tax advantages accruing to the Kennedy family from this"charitable donation," right?
Recreationaluse by the family, beach access, scholarly seminars, eventual publicaccess. Sounds legitimate, no?
A fun exercise –Try, if you can, to determine who sits onthe board of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
This Link takes you to an articledetailing some of the enormous public costs to date occasioned by the Kennedyfamily commissioning -- At Your Expense -- their enormous equestrian statue.
Picturedimmediately above this Note is a map showing the proposed wind farm locationstrenuously 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 thispress release disguised as a news story is beyond breathtaking.
Occupy Hyannis Port!
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