EXTRA...

Kennedy home given to Boston charity

TODAY's quote: "I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls." - Ted Kennedy, Oct. 3, 1983.

Ted Kennedy's home donated to Kennedy Institute

The late senator promised his mother it would be given to charity

The flag at half-mast has been an all too familiar sight at the Kennedy home in Hyannisport. File photo.Half the media on earth today is reporting that "The Compound was sold." The details are a little different.

The late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy's home in Hyannisport overlooking Nantucket Sound has been given to the institute in his name, fulfilling wishes outlined in his will.

The rest of what is commonly known as "the Kennedy Compound" belongs to other family members.

The Boston-based Kennedy Institute issued a statement yesterday about the transaction. The statement said that Ted had promised his mother Rose that the Hyannisport home would be preserved for charitable use.

The institute said the house would host seminars and educational programs and eventually would be opened to the general public, so Cape Cod will still remain the host for famous folks and world leaders which is certainly good for our tourism businesses.

The 12-bedroom, 9,000-square-foot house hosted the family’s famous touch football games, the wedding of Patrick Kennedy and the wedding reception for Ted Kennedy’s niece Caroline Kennedy. It was the summer White House for President John F. Kennedy and was the place the family gathered after he was assassinated in 1963.

Read the detailed report in today's Boston Globe.

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