Tewksbury Town Crier
By HEATHER BURNS, News Correspondent
‘Where were you when JFK was shot?” is a question well known to the generation that lived through that tragic week in 1963 when the 35th President of the United States was shot and killed during the now infamous motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
This November marks the 55th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s death. The John F. Kennedy Museum, located at 397 Main St. in Hyannis, is a place you can pause and reflect on a tragic, yet poignant part of our country’s history.
Not unlike it’s famous counterpart, The John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, The John F. Kennedy Museum in Hyannis chronicles the life of the man and statesman, but is on a smaller, more intimate scale. Visitors that come to Cape Cod can experience and be close to a place that meant so much to JFK during his life.
The Kennedy family has long standing ties with the coastal community of Hyannis Port. Rose and Joseph Kennedy Sr. purchased a six-acre property in Hyannis Port in 1928, and later expanded that parcel of land to house other members of the Kennedy family, including sons, John, Robert, and Ted. This area of Hyannis Port was known as the Summer White House during JFK’s presidency, and is now known as the Kennedy Compound.
The museum is housed in a building that was once the Hyannis Town Hall. Standing out in front of this building is a statue of John F. Kennedy, strolling barefoot. You can close your eyes and image young JFK and his family walking down the streets of Hyannis on a sunny afternoon, perhaps stopping in the exact same place you are standing. It is moments like this that make the intimate setting of this museum the real experience.