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After serving within the Navy during World War II, John F. Kennedy moved to 122 Bowdoin St. in Beacon Hill – and this was his official registered address until his death. This Friday marks the 61st anniversary of his murder in Dallas.
He lived in Apartment 36, a two-bedroom apartment directly across from Ashburton Park within the Massachusetts State House and above Beacon Hill Instant Shoe Repair.
According to his 1959 lease, he paid $95 a month. As of September 2024, the common rent for a two-bedroom home in Beacon Hill is $3,800 per thirty days.
This apartment served as a launching pad for his early political profession, particularly his elections to the House of Representatives in 1946 and the Senate in 1952. Yet even while taking office in Washington, D.C., Kennedy maintained his Bowdoin address throughout this presidency.
When did JFK move to Boston?
Dave Powers, who served as Kennedy's aide and was a former curator of the JFK Library, wrote in a letter that Kennedy used the Bowdoin apartment starting in 1946.
But other records from the JFK Library and Museum show uncertainty as to when Kennedy officially lived at his Bowdoin Street address, as he first had a room on the Hotel Bellevue. The Beacon Street Hotel, which is now a Residential condominiumwas just across the corner from the Bowdoin apartment and was also his grandfather's home.
Historian and Harvard professor Fredrik Logevall is currently within the strategy of writing a three-volume volume Biography of Kennedysaid the Hotel Bellevue served because the “initial hub for this emerging campaign.” Hirsh Freed, even a campaign advisor for JFK sent several letters to Kennedy in his hotel room in December 1946.
In fact, Kennedy had still sent Life insurance payments the next 12 months from the hotel to the Veterans Administration and appears to have simply filed a lawsuit official change of address for the Bowdoin Street address on the Veterans Administration in 1949.
Why did JFK move to Beacon Hill?
After coming back from the war, Kennedy decided to construct his political profession. Logevall said he had been attempting to get into politics for a while.
In 1946 he began running for the Democratic nomination eleventh Congressional Districtwhich covered districts in Boston, Cambridge and Somerville. Today this area is a component of District 7.
In looking for a seat in Congress, he desired to move to a central location “to establish his legitimacy in both the 11th District and the state,” Logevall said.
Then, in 1951, Kennedy ran for the Senate against incumbent Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. In this race particularly, the Bowdoin Street apartment played a key role in his eventual victory.
During his campaign, Kennedy traveled almost every weekend from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts, where the apartment served as his headquarters. He and his team posted a map in the house that showed which communities that they had visited and were capable of strategize tips on how to cover other areas of the state, Logevall said.
He added that irrespective of where within the state he was, even within the Berkshires or Western Mass., Kennedy all the time preferred to sleep in his own bed (with a board under it for support) reasonably than in a hotel.
Why did JFK keep his apartment in Boston?
It may not have been a elaborate place, but Logevall believes Kennedy had a private affection for the apartment.
“I think this film had sentimental meaning for him. That’s where he was when he got his political start,” he said. “It was the scene of some of his early triumphs, a lot of strategy thinking took place in this place.”
When he ran for president in 1960, he and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, even voted on the West End branch of the Boston Public Library.
“We can now say that 24 hours later he would be declared president of the United States,” Logevall said. “He didn’t know this, but even at this particular moment, his address is 122 Bowdoin. It’s pretty remarkable.”
Be Voter card for 1964 I also provided this address. However, loudly a letter from Kennedy's secretaryHis brother Ted Kennedy had lived there for the reason that inauguration.
David Dorsey, a former chief property manager who lived within the constructing for about 45 years, even remembers Ted once fiddling with him and his cousin once they were young.
“I thought it was really cool. “Ted is just hanging out with the kids and messing with the kids,” Dorsey said. “That always stayed with me because he was such a sweet man.”
Dorsey called the Kennedys a part of the “fabric of the neighborhood.” His grandfather, George Washburn, who also worked for the management company for a few years before his death, saw the Kennedys infrequently and even brought them breakfast now and again.
“If you waved 'hello,' they waved back. If you wanted to shake their hand, they would shake your hand. If they wanted to talk to you, they would talk to you,” Dorsey said. “They were the people, not the people.”
Is the apartment still there?
Yes, and another person lives there.
The constructing continues to function an apartment complex today, housing 56 apartments and 4 retail spaces on the primary floor, including Capitol Coffee House and Boston Barber Co. It has also been owned and operated by the identical company, Leeder Management, for the reason that Forties. said Walter Laughlin, chief financial officer.
But during Dorsey's time as property manager, he noticed that almost all residents didn't know Kennedy lived within the apartment constructing until they moved in.
“About a quarter of the people wanted to live there because he lived there,” he said. “But a lot of people who lived there said, ‘Really? Wow, that's incredible.'”
The current resident of Apt. 36 is Jack King, a former producer for radio station WBOS who now works within the stock market. King's home is sort of a gallery, lined with family photos, memories and artwork. His front room shelves display a variety of Kennedy memorabilia, including books, old photos and a small bust statue of the previous president.
King moved there together with his two daughters in 2004 after living in a one-bedroom apartment across the hall. Even though he has lived there for 20 years, he still feels a surreal feeling within the apartment every so often when he remembers that Kennedy was there too.
“I shaved in front of the same mirror as him. He was clearly showering where he used to shower. I feel like – that’s what I like best about living here,” he said.
He often sees tourists taking photos outside the constructing and he has given a lot of them the chance to tour the apartment.
“You can't believe it. Usually they’re older and really remember JFK,” King said. “I like doing it.”
image credit : www.boston.com