After getting the first two fast stamps in Boston, Tom and I headed for the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts.  The house is the birthplace of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our 35th President.  Brookline’s refusal to be annexed by Boston means that it is an exclave of Norfolk County.  It is a quiet residential community known for its wealth.

Tom and I had to circle the block before finding a place to park.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site doesn’t have a parking lot.  Fortunately we found on-street parking close by and walked back to the house.  We arrived just in time to join a historic house tour led by a young volunteer.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in the house that was restored in partnership with Rose Kennedy.  She wanted the house to look as it did the year JFK was born in 1917.  Rose and Joseph Kennedy received the home as a wedding present from her parents.  The house seems small, and the Kennedy family soon moved into a bigger Brookline house three blocks away.  JFK lived in Brookline until he was 10. The original home at 83 Beals Street was repurchased by the Kennedy family in 1966 and donated to the National Park Service.

Our tour guide pointed out the artifacts from the Kennedy family and the room where JFK was born.  Servants shared the house with the young Kennedy family.  When we got to the kitchen, our guide pushed a button and we listened to a recording of Rose Kennedy sharing how she wanted to restore the house so people would remember the young Jack Kennedy.  There is a very good film about the house and John F. Kennedy on the park’s website.

The John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site brochure includes a walking tour of the neighborhood.  You can walk to the places that JFK would have visited as a boy.  The larger home where the family moved is at 51 Abbottsford Road.  Saint Aidan’s Roman Catholic Church, where the family went to church is down the street.  Jack and his brother Joe Jr. attended a private prep school nearby where they were the only Irish Catholic students.

The tour only took half an hour, and concluded in the basement at the tiny gift shop and ranger office.  I got my third stamp of the day and Tom and I headed out.