"Long before it ever became a slogan," says Joseph P. Kennedy, "my family and I had togetherness."
Nowhere is that fact more apparent than in the 14 remarkable homes (including two apartments) owned or rented in the U.S. and abroad by the Kennedy clan. They are not remarkable as showpieces of architecture, interior design or luxury—in fact, considering the Kennedy wealth, they are relatively modest. The establishments are far beyond average pocketbook, and they have the kind of unobtrusive casualness that is far more expensive than it looks, but their total effect is one of warmth, not wealth. What their fellow citizens can see in the Kennedys' homes is taste—not of the avantgarde, pace-setting type, but the kind of taste that has the courage of its comforts. They are, for the most part, the homes of people who know what they like, who will not sacrifice ease to style, but whose style lies in their ease.
Each of the Kennedy homes has been planned with children in mind; no room is, or ever has been, off limits to any child, and the fact shows. One decorator has complained that a Kennedy decorating job consists mainly of replacing slip covers and turning rugs so that the bad spots do not show. Each house abounds in roomy, overstuffed and not necessarily stylish chairs, because all the Kennedys seem not so much to sit in chairs as to bivouac in them. Since most members of the family are prodigious readers, reading lamps are scattered everywhere. Another must in every room is an electric clock. "I always insist on this," says Mother Rose Kennedy, "because then no one has an excuse for being late for meals." One real sign of luxury in the Kennedy homes is the platoon of servants necessary to keep things straightened up; none of the family have ever been especially concerned with general tidiness. Says Rose Kennedy dryly: "You might say that we don't overemphasize it."
Elegant & Salty. Most informal gathering place for the Kennedy family is the 4.7-acre Hyannisport compound on Cape Cod, where President John Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and their father each have a weathered, roomy summer "cottage." Nerve center of the compound is Father Joe Kennedy's "Big House" overlooking Nantucket Sound, a rambling, shingled, 18-room structure with a three-gabled roof and wide porches that is as New England as a swallowed r. The Big House is both elegant and salty. In an illuminated, glass-paneled display case is Rose Kennedy's collection of more than 200 costumed dolls from all over the world. Inside the front door is a hooked "welcome" rug and a doorstop of a bearded fisherman dressed in a yellow sou'wester; the furniture is mostly Early American and 18th century English, bought by Rose Kennedy more than 30 years ago. Hung on the wall are Currier & Ives prints and a Grandma Moses. Inscribed photographs are scattered around the sitting room, in the place of honor on the baby grand piano is a framed photo of Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who visited the Kennedys in 1936 and later became Pope Pius XII.