The sublime Boston condominium the place Joan Bennett Kennedy lived for greater than 45 years has been delivered to the marketplace through her surviving youngsters, Ted Jr. and Patrick, for $2.59 million.
Bennett Kennedy, who died in October 2025 on the age of 89, bought the valuables within the Nineteen Seventies together with her husband, Sen. Ted Kennedy Sr. It handed into her ownership after their divorce in 1982 and served as her number one place of dwelling till her loss of life.
Positioned in a ancient construction at the fringe of the Charles River, the three-bedroom, three-bathroom domicile nonetheless bears many hallmarks of Bennett Kennedy’s time spent there, together with the proficient musician’s shocking Steinway piano, which sits along a comfy fireside in the primary room.
Whilst list agent Linda Barrett of Douglas Elliman—who used to be an in depth buddy of Bennett Kennedy’s for a few years—tells Realtor.com® that the piano can be moved sooner than the house is bought, it’s some distance from the one mark that the valuables’s mythical proprietor left in the back of.
“There used to be a clothier in Boston that used to be very widely known; his identify used to be Richard Fitzgerald, and he helped to design the gap with Joan,” she stocks. “And it used to be simply gorgeous. It used to be truly very gorgeous.”
Earlier than the house used to be delivered to marketplace, it used to be sparsely staged to difficult to understand a few of Bennett Kennedy’s extra distinctive design touches—together with her extremely particular number of bed room paint colour, a element Barrett stocks.
“Her favourite colours had been crimson and crimson. So her bed room used to be crimson,” the list agent unearths. “She simply beloved it. The wall coloring used to be crimson and rug used to be crimson. And as a question of reality, I’ve a wonderful orchid on, and it is a gorgeous, kind of a raspberry crimson petals to it. And I assumed, ‘This colour is for sure for Joan.'”
Even though Bennett Kennedy’s crimson bed room has since been repainted white, there are splashes of her favourite hue dotted during the house, together with within the custom-built bookshelves and a number of other spaces of the trim.
“She beloved to learn, and she or he had many, many bookcases,” Barrett provides.
There could also be one component of the house that Bennett Kennedy beloved that can’t be changed: its proximity to the river. Barrett notes that it used to be amongst her buddy’s favourite portions of residing within the condominium.
“She at all times beloved the water, and she or he lived at the water, in more than a few puts, however I feel that having the river used to be particularly superb for her,” she stocks. “You’ll be able to additionally see Cambridge, however I feel having the proximity to water used to be very non violent for her.
“All it’s a must to do is stroll around the streets, and you are proper there.”
To maximise river perspectives, the condominium options monumental home windows that grow to be the water right into a residing spectacle of passing sailboats.
“I find it irresistible when all of the timber don’t seem to be out, as a result of then you definately see them crusing and racing alongside Charles River, which is at all times nice,” Barrett notes.
“Those superb home windows are in 3 number one rooms: the lounge, the eating room, and Mrs. Kennedy’s bed room. The home windows are so massive, you simply really feel that you are proper there at the water, since you nearly are.”
All through her time in the house, Bennett Kennedy crammed it with mementos and reminders of her family members—together with her youngsters and contributors of the broader Kennedy dynasty, together with her former brother-in-law, former President John F. Kennedy.
Barrett remembers that Bennett Kennedy’s youngest kid, Patrick, beloved coming house to the condominium each time he had a destroy from boarding faculty at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA.
“She had numerous issues from the historical past that she had for sure lived,” Barrett stocks. “All through President Kennedy’s time, Robert Kennedy‘s time, and naturally, with time together with her youngsters. When her youngest son boarded, he beloved to come back house and spend time right here together with his mother. It used to be terrific that Joan used to be so just about them.”
The condominium used to be additionally the place Bennett Kennedy “reinvented herself” after her divorce from Kennedy, in line with her son Ted Jr., who informed Mansion World that the house performed an overly necessary phase in his mom’s lifestyles—serving as her sanctuary during her lifestyles, together with her combat with alcoholism.
“When my mom returned to Boston, she used to be reinventing herself,” he mentioned. “The Boston group truly gave her the energy to grow to be her lifestyles and live to tell the tale her personal phrases.
“She used to be a quiet and delicate individual dealing with many demanding situations in her lifestyles, and some of the first notable ladies speaking about restoration and despair and substance use dysfunction with alcohol.
“On the time, those had been regarded as private failings, we didn’t have the working out of those psychological well being problems that we have got these days. Her willingness to be forthright and truthful truly become an inspiration for girls around the nation.”
Bennett Kennedy first published to Other folks in 1978 that she had long past via a 12-step Alcoholics Nameless program whilst admitting that her sobriety used to be an on a regular basis combat.
“Staying sober is tricky,” she confessed. “However I am sober these days, and that is the reason all that issues. I am running on my restoration an afternoon at a time.”
Within the later years of her lifestyles, Bennett Kennedy would transform recognized for her paintings as an writer and a pianist, skills that she pursued throughout the protection of her Boston domicile, the place she wrote her 1992 ebook, “The Pleasure of Classical Song: A Information for You and Your Circle of relatives.”
Whilst Bennett Kennedy’s private possessions and furnishings have since been got rid of from the house—save for her piano, which Barrett says her youngsters or grandchildren would possibly smartly take—the fantastic historical past of the residing is visual during its bones, together with the hardwood flooring, sublime crown molding, and the various built-ins that used to carry her ebook assortment.
Nearly staged list pictures assist to give a imaginative and prescient for the way those design main points may well be included into a contemporary transformation, with undying furnishings items displayed along the lounge fireside—which is double-sided and likewise opens to the main bed room.
“The condominium lends itself to multiple form of purchaser,” Barrett notes. “Individuals are elevating their youngsters within the town, persons are retiring from the suburbs, like Wellesley and Weston, and entering town, as a result of you’ll be able to stroll all over.”
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