Decorating the Kennedy
Summer House
Spring/Summer
GANT HOME
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LILY FLOWER DUVET
LILY FLOWER PILLOWCASE
NEWPORT SUMMER FRAME PILLOWCASE
LACE CUSHION
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Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or “Bobby” as he is known to his friends,
loves the water. It’s a very personal love that is rooted in a magical
childhood growing up in Hyannisport, Massachusetts on the
shores of Nantucket Sound. Here, among historic clapboard houses,
boardwalks and beaches Bobby and his six energetic
children now share their own home
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The Kennedys moved to Hyannisport in the
1920s when Bobby’s grandfather Joseph P.
Kennedy purchased a rambling beachfront
home. “Grandpa’s house” was soon surrounded
by the homes of his children including Bobby’s
father’s, Attorney General Robert Kennedy and
his uncle’s President John F. Kennedy, in a tight
compound. Other Kennedy relatives also moved
into a slightly more scattered orbit around Joseph
Kennedy’s gabled clapboard summerhouse and
the tiny seaside village.
Bobby spent each summer on Cape Cod at the
family compound where he and his 29 cousins
enjoyed a daily regimen of athletic training and
outdoor activities. Each day the families would
sail to the nearby islands with the children
skippering their own tiny sailboats and the
grownups leading the flotilla in the family’s 26foot Wianno Senior. They would picnic there and
fish for sand sharks, scup, flounder, puffers and
sea robins; gather hermit crabs, periwinkles and
scallops, or dig for the tasty steamers. After sailing
they would play baseball on the field behind
John F. Kennedy’s summer White House or touch
football below Joseph Kennedy’s veranda on the
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is President of Waterkeeper
Alliance and the best-known environmental
lawyer in America. Waterkeeper Alliance is the
world’s foremost grassroots water protection
organization. As president, he leads over two
hundred local waterkeeper programs that
protect rivers, lakes and ocean bays around
the world using patrol boats, litigation and
science to bring the biggest polluters to justice.
Waterkeepers understand that clean water
means healthy communities.
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sprawling green lawn bordered by sawgrass and
white sand beaches that stretch into the sparkling sea. Hyannisport was a paradise for Bobby.
Surrounded by his family he indulged his obsession with the natural world.
Nothing much has changed in Hyannisport
in the 50 years since it served as the summer
White House but today Bobby’s six children have
85 cousins to play with, all of them enjoying the
same close relationship with nature and the sea.
Each day they ride their bikes to the tidal inlets
at Calmus Beach to crab, or to the salt marshes
at nearby Squaw Island to catch fiddler crabs,
killifish, and mumichugs. They dip-net for painted turtles and baby catfish on Anderson’s Pond,
and seine for eels, shiners, skipjacks and Atlantic
needle fish that hide in the Sargasso weed on the
shores that bracket the harbor.
Bobby’s home is a virtual hotel. His siblings,
cousins and dozens of young cousins from the
4th generation assemble each night with weekend
guests and stray kids from across the village after
outdoor games of baseball, football and capturethe-flag. As head of the household, he cooks a
giant barbecue, as thirty bicycles lie resting on
the front lawn.
Bobby’s classic New England cedar shingle
home was built in 1820 by a sea captain. On its
roof is a charming fenced terrace known locally
as a “widow’s walk”, where the captain’s wife
could watch for her husband’s return from the
sea. From here, the expansive sea views stretch to
the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket
on the edge of the horizon. Midnight may find a
dozen children sleeping on the widow’s walk beneath the stars on foam bedrolls. Facing the other
way, there’s a Kennedy home in every direction.
Bobby himself grew up in the house next door
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LACE PAISLEY DUVET
BIG LACE PAISLEY PILLOWCASE
SMALL LACE PAISLEY PILLOWCASE
LEAF EMBROIDERY CUSHION
SEERSUCKER THROW
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with ten siblings, his mother Ethel who still lives
there and father Robert Kennedy, the legendary
attorney general and civil rights champion of
the ’60s.
The doors of this hospitable household are
never locked. The kitchen is always open and the
barbecue pit lit. Ringing phones, blaring music,
trampling feet and the barking of the Kennedy’s
two dachshunds, Cupid and Cinnamon, add to
the atmosphere of amiable anarchy. Kids box,
dance, wrestle, paint pictures or play “ananagrams” on the floor while the older boys and
girls clean fresh caught bluefish on the outdoor
patio. Somewhere someone is playing a few bars
on a piano.
Between May and September, the house functions as the hub around which the family’s life
revolves. There is nothing ostentatious here.
The three-story house contains an astounding
twenty-one beds scattered haphazardly over five
crowded bedrooms, a living room and study, all
served by a kitchen and four bathrooms. Stained
pine floors complement beautiful windows cheerfully lighting practical bedrooms strewn with
matching pillows, duvets and throws. Terrycloth
robes and towels hanging in the bathrooms tastefully complete the casual country home feeling.
Shelves in the kitchen and the hallways overflow with plates, bowls and glasses, all anxiously
expecting unexpected visitors. The combined dining room and study is too small for the perpetual crowds and flows out onto a patio filled with
wicker and Adirondack chairs, which functions
as the social center of the house.
Even on the occasional Cape Cod rainy day, the
family spends time together. Bobby takes the kids
to play paint ball or roller hockey or go bowling or
to the movies. The return trip to the compound
almost invariably includes a stop at the world famous ice cream parlor “Four Seas”, which also
provides cones and chocolate sundaes on evenings
when dinner guests outnumber the desserts.
Fresh ocean breezes blow through open windows and doors. The president of Waterkeeper
Alliance has spent his entire life on rivers and
by the sea, and was taught from an early age
along with the rest of his cousins to never fear the
ocean. Kennedy boats can be seen on Nantucket
Sound even on the windiest days when the small
craft warning flag is battering the flagpole at the
end of the Hyannisport pier. Calmer days find the
children swimming, diving from the pier, windsurfing, waterskiing, wake boarding, kite surfing,
kayaking and surfing. All the children know how
to navigate and handle themselves on a sailboat.
Bobby’s passion for the sea is evident throughout his house. Navigational charts, marine and
nautical art adorn every wall. The third floor is
paneled in the style of a wooden ship’s cabin. In
those rare instances when the house is actually
quiet, Bobby gets a chance to tell the children
tales of Cape Cod’s riveting history, pirate ships,
the Wampanoag Indians, whaling fleets and the
pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock. Other days
the family goes diving with friend and worldfamous treasure hunter Barry Clifford, searching
for pirate treasure on the wreck of the Whydah –
Sam Bellamy’s ship that foundered off Cape Cod
in 1691. The Kennedy children often return to the
surface with handfuls of gold pirate dubloons.
The idyllic paradise that patriarch Joseph
Kennedy found in Hyannisport abides for generations of Kennedys. Each year new members of the
clan learn to love nature and Cape Cod as their
parents, grandparents and great-grandparents
have during every magical summer since 1920.
SUMMER TARTAN THROW
LOGO EMBROIDERY CUSHION
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SUMMER TARTAN CUSHION
GRAPHIC KNIT THROW
SOLID CABLE KNIT CUSHION
GINGHAM CHECK THROW
GINGHAM CHECK CUSHION
HYANNIS STRIPE RUG
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GRAPHIC STRIPE THROW
SUMMER SHIELD THROW
SOLID CABLE KNIT THROW
SUMMER TARTAN THROW
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NAUTICAL PRINT DUVET
NAUTICAL STRIPE PILLOWCASE
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COTTAGE STRIPE DUVET
COTTAGE STRIPE PILLOWCASE
NEWPORT FRAME PILLOWCASE
SUMMER BIG STAR CUSHION
CAPE COD EMBROIDERY CUSHION
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STARS & STRIPES BEACHTOWEL
ALLOVER STAR BEACHTOWEL
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LAUNDRY BAG
SIGNAL CUSHION “C” KNIT CUSHION
SIGNAL CUSHION “J” KNIT CUSHION
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EMBOSSED CERAMICS
GANT CREST CERAMICS
HERRINGBONE TABLELINEN
STAR BREAKFAST TEACUP & SAUCER
STAR TEAPOT
CHECK DISHTOWELS
CAPE COD CHECK DISHTOWELS
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Please note that certain items may not be available in every country. Find your store at
W W W. G A N T. C O M
“Everyone has the right to clean water.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is president of Waterkeeper Alliance.
The organisation is a growing international network of people dedicated
to protecting and improving the world’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters.
In order to share this magnificent heritage with future generations,
GANT Home encourages everyone to support Waterkeeper Alliance.
For additional information about Waterkeeper Alliance and its projects, please go to www.waterkeeper.org
B E D • B AT H • TA B L E T O P • R U G S • FA B R I C S • D E C O R AT I V E A C C E S S O R I E S
HägerFredlund. Photo Oscar Falk. Location lindberglocations.com. Styling Annette Lundh. Prepress Linjepunkt. Final Art Hurricane Studios. Print JMS. Spring/Summer 2011.
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