Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Inside former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ 16 luxe homes: from childhood in a Park Avenue building that her grandfather built, to her land in Martha’s Vineyard and the White House with JFK

Former US first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis had owned and stayed in multiple luxurious homes throughout her life. Photos: Getty Images; Business Insider

To say that former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis was an icon of her time would be an apt statement.

Former US first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Photo: Instagram
Her legacy extends beyond being the wife of an assassinated US president – she went on to maintain her interest in the arts and landmark preservation, playing a crucial role in saving the historic Grand Central station in NYC. She even has a Gucci bag named after her!
Jackie Kennedy Onassis certainly led a fascinating life. Photo: Getty Images

But what do we know about her residences and notable properties that she stayed in since she was born?

From living in a mansion in Virginia to the White House and, later on, buying a plot of land in Martha’s Vineyard, we peek at 16 of Jackie O’s luxurious homes since her youth.

Gone too soon: remembering 16 era-defining celebrities who died in 2023

1. 740 Park Avenue, NYC

JFK and Jackie Kennedy posing with their children in 1961. Photo: Getty Images

Before she was a Kennedy or an Onassis, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier spent her early years in New York City.

In 1932, the Bouviers moved into an apartment on the sixth and seventh floors of 740 Park Avenue. The apartment building was developed by her grandfather, James T. Lee. At least for a period, her father wasn’t able to afford to furnish it, so Jackie and her sister Caroline Lee could roller skate from room to room.
740 Park Avenue apartment building was developed by Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ grandfather. Photo: AFP

Later, it became a home for billionaires and was once considered one of the most iconic apartment buildings in the city. In 2017, her old apartment sold for US$25.25 million.

2. Merrywood mansion in Virginia

The exterior of Merrywood mansion in Virginia. Photo: Business Insider

In the 1940s, Bouvier’s mother had remarried and they left New York. Her new husband, an oil magnate named Hugh D. Auchincloss, owned the Georgian-style mansion called Merrywood in McLean, Virginia, in Washington DC.

Jackie Kennedy Onassis once revealed that she loved staying at Merrywood. Photo: Business Insider

The mansion, which was built in 1919, sits on the edge of the Potomac River and covers 23,000 sq ft. At the time it had nine bedrooms and 13 bathrooms, as well as an extensive garden.

Bouvier wrote fondly about the house in her diary, saying, “I always love it so at Merrywood – so peaceful … with the river and those great steep hills.”

Inside Grammy Award winner John Mayer’s US$10 million haute horlogerie hobby

3. East Hampton estate “Lasata”

Tom Ford splashed out US$52 million on Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ childhood holiday home, located in the Hamptons, New York. Photo: Compass Realty
Bouvier spent her summers at her paternal grandfather’s East Hampton estate called “Lasata”, which means “place of peace” in the native Algonquian language. The house, which is 8,500 sq ft, was built in 1917 and sits on about 2.8 hectares. Earlier this year, fashion designer Tom Ford bought it for US$52 million.

4. East Hampton house “Wildmoor”

Jackie Kennedy Onassis (left) had a comfortable upbringing. Photo: Getty Images

She also spent some of her summers at her maternal grandfather’s house in East Hampton called “Wildmoor”. The 18th-century home, covering about 5,700 sq ft, was a shingle-and-clapboard wooden house with a view of fields, a swamp and the sea, The Wall Street Journal reported. In 2021, the house was sold for US$6.8 million.

5. “Kennedy Compound” in Massachusetts

The Kennedy family’s summer home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Photo: AP Photo

Her next notable property was the Kennedy family’s summer home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Before they were married, Bouvier and John F. Kennedy spent some time together there, which later became known as the “Kennedy Compound”. The Kennedys bought the house in 1928, Town and Country reported.

6. Hammersmith Farm

Jackie Kennedy at Hammersmith Farm on her wedding day. Photo: Getty Images

In 1953, Bouvier became a Kennedy when the couple married in Newport, Rhode Island. They had the wedding reception at her mother’s husband’s estate known as “Hammersmith Farm”. The Kennedys later vacationed there in the summer of 1961. The property was last sold in 1999 for just over US$8 million.

Nepo grandkids? 11 celebrities whose parents and grandparents were already famous

7. 3321 Dent Place, Georgetown

The young Kennedys stayed in this four-bedroom house in Georgetown. Photo: Business Insider

In 1953, not long after the Kennedys were married, they rented a four-story, four-bedroom house in Georgetown, at 3321 Dent Place. The Kennedys lived there for almost two years and enjoyed throwing dinner parties and spending time in its back gardens. The house is about 3,000 sq ft.

8. Hickory Hill, Virginia

Hickory Hill has a historical tie with the Kennedys. Photo: Getty Images

Two years later, in 1955, the Kennedys moved to “Hickory Hill”, another Georgian-style house. This one was built in 1815 and had a tennis court, a pool and 12 fireplaces on a 2.2-hectare plot in McLean, Virginia. They bought it from Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson.

Four of the eleven children of Robert F. Kennedy posing for a photo in Hickory Hill, in 1957. Photo: Getty Images
Two years later, the Kennedys sold it for US$250,000 to John’s brother, Robert, who would end up raising his own family there. Jackie didn’t want to go back after her daughter was stillborn.

Robert was at the house when he heard John had been assassinated, the Baltimore Sun reported. He spent an hour alone, walking around the estate.

Joe Manganiello’s new GF Caitlin O’Connor is 18 years younger than Sofía Vergara

9. 111 Irving Avenue, Hyannis Port

JFK and Jackie Onassis reading to their daughter Caroline at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in 1960. Photo: AP Photo

In 1956, the Kennedys bought a summer home at 111 Irving Avenue in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, right beside the original Kennedy summer home. The 4,480-sq-ft clapboarded home sat on less than 0.4 hectares of land and soon became part of the “Kennedy Compound”. They spent US$45,950 on the house.

10. 3307 N Street, Georgetown

Jackie Kennedy Onassis discovered her flair for interior design at their 3307 N Street house in Georgetown. Photo: Getty Images

In 1957, the Kennedys bought 3307 N Street, an 18th-century brick row house in Georgetown, for US$82,000. Jackie spent about US$18,000 on remodelling it and she decorated the house with armchairs and good porcelain. Her husband campaigned and was elected president during their years here, Architectural Digest reported.

11. The White House

The Kennedys stayed in the White House from 1961 to 1963. Photo: EPA-EFE

Though not officially a property she owned, Jackie lived in the White House with her family during her husband’s presidency from 1961 to the end of 1963.

She later described this period as her family’s “happiest years”, The Daily Beast reported.

12. Holidaying at Joseph Kennedy’s Palm Beach estate

US president John F. Kennedy holds daughter Caroline by the hand while his wife Jackie O carries John F. Kennedy Jr as they leave the home of his father, Joseph Kennedy, in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1962. Photo: AP Photo

During the winters, while they were living in the White House, they vacationed at her father-in-law Joseph Kennedy’s Palm Beach estate.

Who is Martha Stewart’s lookalike granddaughter, Jude?

13. 3017 N Street, Georgetown

Former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis reportedly once lived in the house at 3017 N Street Northwest in Washington DC. Photo: Getty Images

In 1963, after her husband was assassinated, Jackie and her children left the White House and moved into an 18th-century home at 3017 N Street in Georgetown. She paid around US$175,000 for the five-bedroom house but only lived there for about a year. It was too public and she reportedly became overwhelmed with all of the tourists. In 2017, it was bought for US$5.25 million.

14. 1040 Fifth Avenue, NYC

Jackie Kennedy Onassis leaving her Fifth Avenue apartment circa 1977, in New York City. Photo: Getty Images

In 1964, Jackie and her children moved back to New York after she discreetly bought a 5,300-sq-ft apartment on the 15th floor of 1040 Fifth Avenue for US$200,000. The apartment had five bathrooms, three fireplaces, two terraces and a library. It also had a view of Central Park.

She owned the apartment until she died in 1994. It was bought from her estate in 1995 for US$9.2 million. The buyer said she hadn’t done much upkeep and they ended up gutting the whole apartment.

Jackie Kennedy takes a barefoot stroll alongside Aristotle Onassis’ yacht, Christine, in 1968, in Skorpios, Greece. Photo: Corbis

While she was alive, she began dividing her time between France, Greece, Martha’s Vineyard and New Jersey while keeping New York as a home base.

She also got married again in 1968 to a Greek shipping magnate named Aristotle Onassis and became Jackie Onassis or “Jackie O”.

15. Peapack, New Jersey country home

Jackie Kennedy Onassis enjoyed spending time at her country home in New Jersey. Photo: Getty Images

In 1974, Onassis bought a country home – a converted barn on almost four hectares – for US$200,000 in Peapack, New Jersey. She liked the area for its natural beauty and space for horse riding. Plus, she knew the area well because she had previously rented a farmhouse described by The Times as a “badly made-over barn” in Bernardsville since 1965. After she bought the property, she painted it yellow with white trim.

After Onassis died, her neighbour and friend, Marjorie McDonnell Walsh, bought the Peapack property for US$1.47 million in 1997. Walsh told The Wall Street Journal they tore the house down. “It doesn’t matter,” she said when declining to share details about the new house. “The much more important thing is we both love the property. It’s a private valley. It’s beautiful.”

All choked up: how neck jewellery evolved, from ancient Egypt to Kendall Jenner

16. Red Gate Farm, Martha’s Vineyard

Jackie Kennedy Onassis built a house on her land in Martha’s Vineyard that was sold for US$65 million in 2020. Photo: Christie’s Real Estate

In 1979, after her second husband died, Jackie decided to build a new house called “Red Gate Farm” on 137 hectares of land in Martha’s Vineyard.

She only spent a little more than US$1 million on the land and then another US$3.1 million on building the house, which was finished in 1981. The main building covers 6,456 sq ft. There’s also a four-bedroom guest house, a pool and a tennis court. The property stretches across 1.6km of beach. In 2020, it was put up for sale for US$65 million.

This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
  • Jackie O described her time at the White House as her family’s ‘happiest years’, but after JFK died, she and her children moved back to Manhattan, where she grew up alongside her sister Lee Radziwill
  • She stayed in East Hamptons during the summers in her youth and moved into a Georgetown house after she got married, then to Hickory Hill, where her bro-in-law Robert and his family later stayed