by LONDON — Martha’s Vineyard, an island that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis escaped to as a safe haven in the late ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, tragedy struck a few years after her own death, but is still a focal point for family moments, and a portrait of the family’s highly influential style at their summer getaway, located off the Cape Cod coast of Massachusetts.
In 1979, Onassis paid $1 million for a 340-acre property in Martha’s Vineyard with a mile-long private beach, otherwise known as Red Gate Farm. She commissioned architect Hugh Newel Jacbosen to design a Cape Cod-style main house alongside a two-story guest house. Socialite Rachel “Bunny” Mellon was tasked with landscaping the property.
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Caroline Kennedy’s wedding at Red Gate Farm
After Onassis’ death, Red Gate Farm was inherited by her daughter, Caroline Kennedy, in 1994, who married Edwin Schlossberg on Martha’s Vineyard in 1986. The bride wore Carolina Herrera, as did her mother.
Caroline Kennedy’s dress was made of white silk organza with a round neckline, short sleeves, drop waist and a 25-foot train. The bodice of the dress was covered with hundreds of embroidered white shamrocks and a single four-leaf clover for good luck. The shamrocks were also visible on the edge of the dress.
Onassis wore a light green dress with high shoulder pads and long sleeves paired with long white gloves to the wedding. Her minimal ensemble was accessorized with a pair of flower earrings.
The bridesmaids, including Courtney Kennedy Ruhe and Sydney Lawford McKelvy, wore Grecian-inspired floral lilac dresses that matched their flower crowns. Maria Shriver Schwarzenegger was matron of honor.
Caroline’s brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., was the groom’s best man.
Kennedy style on Red Gate Farm
The British royal family wear their tiaras and gowns at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, but for American royalty, the Canadians, they let their hair down in Martha’s Vineyard. This is where Onassis would trade his pillbox hats for straw hats with sleeveless shirts and short shorts.
On a private boat trip with Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1993, Onassis is wearing a long-striped red T-shirt with a red scarf tied around her head with sunglasses, almost as a nod to her first cousin, the exotic Little Edie. style at the Gray Gardens.
The Kennedy Curse hits Martha’s Vineyard
On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash off the coast of a small island in the state of Massachusetts with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette.
The couple and Lauren were given a sea burial by the US Navy, off the coast of Massachusetts.
Remodeling the Kennedy House on Martha’s Vineyard
In 2000, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg commissioned Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to remodel the property. The main house expanded to 6,456 square feet and the guest house included four bedrooms and a kitchen.
Other amenities on the property included a three-bedroom caretaker’s house, a swimming pool, a boathouse, a tennis court, two garages, a temperature-controlled storage building, and an original hunting cabin that was there when Onassis bought the land.
Kennedy Schlossberg’s daughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, married her now-husband, George Moran, in 2017 at the town.
The future of The Kennedy Home on Martha’s Vineyard
In 2019, the estate was listed for sale by Kennedy Schlossberg for $65 million.
“Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard. When she found Red Gate Farm, it was the perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit,” she said at the time. “The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah allowed her to create a world where she could be as close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books.”
The house was a personal safe haven for Onassis. It is documented that when she was 10 years old, she said: “When I go down to the sandy shore I can’t think of anything I want more than to live by the blue sea and the seagulls flying around me.”
The blue sea can be seen from every room in the house except the dining room.
Inside the Kennedy Compound: Photos of the Family’s Hyannisport Homes Through the Years
View the Gallery
The property was sold to the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission and the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation in September 2020 for $27 million.
The nonprofits announced in a statement that they planned to turn the property into conservation land open to the public.
Below, see photos of the Kennedy Family’s Hyannisport Compound.
Launch Gallery: Inside the Kennedy Compound: Photos of the Family’s Hyannisport Homes Through the Years
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