The long-delayed $30 million expansion of the John F. Kennedy Library could get started this spring.
Congress is expected to approve a $410 billion spending bill next week that provides $22 million for construction of a two-story, 30,000-square-foot addition to be built on the north side of the library.
The House and Senate have already provided $8 million to buy the land from the University of Massachusetts Boston and for site preparation.
Congress is expected to approve a $410 billion spending bill next week that provides $22 million for construction of a two-story, 30,000-square-foot addition to be built on the north side of the library.
The House and Senate have already provided $8 million to buy the land from the University of Massachusetts Boston and for site preparation.
“This is great news for us,” said Thomas McNaught, deputy director of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.
“The new wing will hold a treasure trove of historical papers and artifacts from John, Jacqueline, Robert and Edward Kennedy that document that period of American history.”
The funding request to build the wing dates to 2001 when the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency responsible for housing historical government documents, found that the JFK Library lacked space for the collection.
The report said the storage problems at the Kennedy Library are among the worst in the presidential library system.
“It was so bad we had to move much of the collection to a building in South Boston,” McNaught said.
Among the items stored off-site are the chair that John F. Kennedy used during the 1961 Vienna, Austria Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy’s wardrobe.
The addition will also house Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s papers.
While the Bush administration included money in previous budgets for the library’s land purchase and the building’s design, the administration failed to include money for construction of the museum, according to McNaught.
“We are eager to get started,” McNaught said.
“The new wing will hold a treasure trove of historical papers and artifacts from John, Jacqueline, Robert and Edward Kennedy that document that period of American history.”
The funding request to build the wing dates to 2001 when the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency responsible for housing historical government documents, found that the JFK Library lacked space for the collection.
The report said the storage problems at the Kennedy Library are among the worst in the presidential library system.
“It was so bad we had to move much of the collection to a building in South Boston,” McNaught said.
Among the items stored off-site are the chair that John F. Kennedy used during the 1961 Vienna, Austria Summit with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Jacqueline Kennedy’s wardrobe.
The addition will also house Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s papers.
While the Bush administration included money in previous budgets for the library’s land purchase and the building’s design, the administration failed to include money for construction of the museum, according to McNaught.
“We are eager to get started,” McNaught said.
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