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
To say that former first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis was an icon of her time would be an apt statement.
But what do we know about her residences and notable properties that she stayed in since she was born?
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1. 740 Park Avenue, NYC
Before she was a Kennedy or an Onassis, Jacqueline Lee Bouvier spent her early years in New York City.
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
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.
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.”
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3. East Hampton estate “Lasata”
4. East Hampton house “Wildmoor”
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
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
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.
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7. 3321 Dent Place, Georgetown
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
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.
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.
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9. 111 Irving Avenue, Hyannis Port
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
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
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
During the winters, while they were living in the White House, they vacationed at her father-in-law Joseph Kennedy’s Palm Beach estate.
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13. 3017 N Street, Georgetown
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
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.
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
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.”
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16. Red Gate Farm, Martha’s Vineyard
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.
- 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