The Kennedy compound has been restored to its former glory. No, not that one.
While the family enclave in Hyannis Port is indeed known as the Kennedy compound, part of Allerton Hill in Hull is considered by locals to be the original. The property was owned at the turn of the 20th century by John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, then mayor of Boston, father of Rose Kennedy and grandfather of president John F. Kennedy.
The 16-room Victorian multi-gabled mansion had fallen into disrepair over the last several years and was purchased in 2006 by developer Ernesto Caparrotta of Hull, owner of Seven Hills Corp. in Weymouth. He paid $950,000 for the 7,163-square-foot house at auction.
Former owner Jamie Edelkind was sent to prison after his 2005 conviction on charges he used phony mortgage and payroll documents to buy the house in 2000.
Caparrotta wouldn't say how much he spent renovating the house, a project just recently finished. It is assessed by the town for $1.52 million and is now on the market for $2.37 million.
"I don't usually renovate homes, I prefer building them from the ground up," said Caparrotta, a native of Italy who came to America 30 years ago and has lived in Hull ever since. "But I always drove by this house, always loved it, so when the opportunity came up, I took it."
The house was built in 1892, and bought by Fitzgerald in 1915 as a summer retreat for his growing family; he sold it in 1921. After Rose Fitzgerald married Joseph P. Kennedy, her father had a home built next to his, down the hill and next to the water. The Tudor-style house was dubbed Rose Kennedy's Dollhouse.
"You can almost see Rose Kennedy walking up the driveway with little John on her shoulders," said T. David Raftery, who 12 years ago bought the Rose Kennedy Dollhouse and has lived in it since, absorbing the local Kennedy legend and happily imparting it to anyone who asks. "There's a lot of Kennedy history there."
JFK reportedly played on the nearby beach, he said, and many were the quiet, respectful parties Fitzgerald threw in the sprawling, three-story home.
"They weren't wild parties; he'd hire quartets to play in the living room," said Raftery, an assistant district attorney in Norfolk County.
The Allerton Hill area was popular with the Boston elite, he said, as a summer getaway, as was Cohasset, but at the time that town turned a cold shoulder to Catholics, Raftery said.
"The Kennedys weren't allowed in," he said. "It was very anti-Catholic at the time, but they were accepted in Hull. Allerton was a summer home for a lot of Boston people."
And the home may be the only one on the South Shore to have been frequented by three American presidents - or those who would be. A photo in Rose Kennedy's autobiography, "Times to Remember," shows her father shaking hands with President William Howard Taft outside the Hull home. Rose Kennedy's son would go on to be elected president in 1960. Another visitor to the home was Calvin Coolidge, then a Massachusetts governor, who became president in 1923.
(...) On the third floor is a wide-open, airy room that he said was a "gentlemen only" room in Kennedy's day, where men would gather to smoke cigars, sip brandy, and discuss heady matters of the day and most likely the effect on their respective fortunes.
(...) But none of those big names possess the uniquely Massachusetts mystique of the Kennedy clan.
"Not many people know about the history of the Kennedys here - I bet if you asked schoolchildren in Hull today, they wouldn't know," Raftery said. "But the old-timers in Hull, they know."
While the family enclave in Hyannis Port is indeed known as the Kennedy compound, part of Allerton Hill in Hull is considered by locals to be the original. The property was owned at the turn of the 20th century by John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, then mayor of Boston, father of Rose Kennedy and grandfather of president John F. Kennedy.
The 16-room Victorian multi-gabled mansion had fallen into disrepair over the last several years and was purchased in 2006 by developer Ernesto Caparrotta of Hull, owner of Seven Hills Corp. in Weymouth. He paid $950,000 for the 7,163-square-foot house at auction.
Former owner Jamie Edelkind was sent to prison after his 2005 conviction on charges he used phony mortgage and payroll documents to buy the house in 2000.
Caparrotta wouldn't say how much he spent renovating the house, a project just recently finished. It is assessed by the town for $1.52 million and is now on the market for $2.37 million.
"I don't usually renovate homes, I prefer building them from the ground up," said Caparrotta, a native of Italy who came to America 30 years ago and has lived in Hull ever since. "But I always drove by this house, always loved it, so when the opportunity came up, I took it."
The house was built in 1892, and bought by Fitzgerald in 1915 as a summer retreat for his growing family; he sold it in 1921. After Rose Fitzgerald married Joseph P. Kennedy, her father had a home built next to his, down the hill and next to the water. The Tudor-style house was dubbed Rose Kennedy's Dollhouse.
"You can almost see Rose Kennedy walking up the driveway with little John on her shoulders," said T. David Raftery, who 12 years ago bought the Rose Kennedy Dollhouse and has lived in it since, absorbing the local Kennedy legend and happily imparting it to anyone who asks. "There's a lot of Kennedy history there."
JFK reportedly played on the nearby beach, he said, and many were the quiet, respectful parties Fitzgerald threw in the sprawling, three-story home.
"They weren't wild parties; he'd hire quartets to play in the living room," said Raftery, an assistant district attorney in Norfolk County.
The Allerton Hill area was popular with the Boston elite, he said, as a summer getaway, as was Cohasset, but at the time that town turned a cold shoulder to Catholics, Raftery said.
"The Kennedys weren't allowed in," he said. "It was very anti-Catholic at the time, but they were accepted in Hull. Allerton was a summer home for a lot of Boston people."
And the home may be the only one on the South Shore to have been frequented by three American presidents - or those who would be. A photo in Rose Kennedy's autobiography, "Times to Remember," shows her father shaking hands with President William Howard Taft outside the Hull home. Rose Kennedy's son would go on to be elected president in 1960. Another visitor to the home was Calvin Coolidge, then a Massachusetts governor, who became president in 1923.
(...) On the third floor is a wide-open, airy room that he said was a "gentlemen only" room in Kennedy's day, where men would gather to smoke cigars, sip brandy, and discuss heady matters of the day and most likely the effect on their respective fortunes.
(...) But none of those big names possess the uniquely Massachusetts mystique of the Kennedy clan.
"Not many people know about the history of the Kennedys here - I bet if you asked schoolchildren in Hull today, they wouldn't know," Raftery said. "But the old-timers in Hull, they know."
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