Jackie O’s Summer Getaway Is Up For Sale
Looking for a beach house upgrade and got a cool sixty-five million dollars to burn? Then you might be interested in Red Gate Farm, the Martha’s Vineyard Estate once owned by Jackie O and recently put up for sale by her daughter Caroline Kennedy. Listed with Christie’s International Real Estate, the 340-acre property in Aquinnah, Massachusetts, has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a pool, a library, and “solar energy.” The surrounding area is almost all waterfront, as you can see from photos on the Christie’s site, with views of the Atlantic and on the edge of Squibnocket Pond (which is just a delight to say).
After she purchased the land in 1979, Mrs. Onassis preserved the property’s hunting cabin and enlisted architect Hugh Newell Jacobson to design the main house and guest house, while her friend Rachel Bunny Mellon (who had previously redesigned the White House Rose Garden under the Kennedy administration) designed the landscapes. The buildings were completed in 1981, renovated in 2000, and may be purchased by some Jeff Bezos-like figure in 2020. According to People, the original price Onassis paid was just a cool million. Ever thrifty, those Kennedys.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ House in Martha’s Vineyard (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
In a statement, Caroline Kennedy said she and her family, who have vacationed at Red Gate over the past forty years, are “excited about the next chapter for Red Gate Farm.” She continued, “Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard. When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit…The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her the chance to create a world where she could be so close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books…She even built a fairy treehouse for her grandchildren. Those grandchildren are grown so now it is time for us to follow my mother’s example and create our own worlds…We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations.”
An Arrestingly Intimate Look At the Kennedy Family And Their Personal Photos
John F. Kennedy wearing sun tape on his nose on a docked boat with Robert F. Kennedy in Edgartown, Massachusetts during the Edgartown Regatta, July 1941.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Kathleen Kennedy, Rosemary Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy on the porch steps of the house the Kennedy family rented in Cohasset, Massachusetts, circa 1922.
Rosemary Kennedy outside the Kennedy family home in Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1937.
Robert F. Kennedy, Eunice Kennedy, and Jean Kennedy play on a swing set on Halloween in Bronxville, New York, October 1934.
The Kennedy family children swimming at the beach in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, circa 1925-1927.
John F. Kennedy with friends in Charleston, South Carolina, 1942.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. and John F. Kennedy outside of the Kennedy family home on Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts, circa 1919.
Kathleen Kennedy outside of the Kennedy family home in Bronxville, New York, circa 1935-1937.
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy with their children in Palm Beach, Florida, December 1937.
John F. Kennedy on the sea grass near the shore of Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts, 1918.
Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Edward M. Kennedy, and a friend swimming in Palm Beach, December 1941/January 1942.
Kirk LeMoyne “Lem” Billings (right) and Robert F. Kennedy (left) playing with a fishing net aboard a boat off the coast of Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, summer 1941.
Rosemary Kennedy near Kilcroney Castle in Bray during her trip to Ireland, circa July-August 1938.
Robert F. Kennedy outside of the Kennedy family home in Bronxville, New York, April 1933.
John F. Kennedy, Kirk LeMoyne “Lem” Billings, and Mary O’Keefe at the Kennedy family pool in Palm Beach, Florida, April 1936.
