Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy, has decided to put Red Gate Farm, her mother's sprawling and secluded Martha's Vineyard estate, on the market.
Red Gate Farm, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' Martha's Vineyard retreat, is on the market for $65 million. For 40 years, it served as a summer home and refuge for the late former first lady, her children, and grandchildren.
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Jackie O purchased Red Gate Farm in 1979, three years after the death of her second husband, shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. She paid $1 million for the 340-acre property, which had been used as a sheep farm and at the time included only one building, a small hunting cabin.
Building up the land to suit her needs, she enlisted the help of her friends, landscape designer Bunny Mellon, who had redesigned the White House Rose Garden during JFK's presidency, and renowned architect Hugh Newell.
The result was an elegant two-story Cape Cod-style main house, a guest house, and amenities like an outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, a vegetable garden and blueberry patch, over one mile of pristine private Atlantic beachfront, and a fairytale tree house, which Jackie had built especially for her grandchildren.
Until her death in 1994, Jackie split most of her time between Red Gate Farm and the Kennedy Compound two hours away in Hyannis Port. Caroline inherited the property and recruited Deborah Berke, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to update the main house in 2000.
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In a statement about her decision to sell Red Gate, the 61-year-old former US Ambassador to Japan said:
"Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard.
"When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit.
"The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her the chance to create a world where she could be so close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books.
"She even built a fairy treehouse for her grandchildren.
"Those grandchildren are grown so now it is time for us to follow my mother’s example and create our own worlds.
"We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations. We are excited about the next chapter for Red Gate Farm."
Caroline Kennedy's daughter Tatiana Schlossberg married her husband George Moran in a ceremony at Red Gate in September 2017.
Red Gate is listed with Christie’s International. In the 6,456-square-foot main residence, all rooms except the dining room look out over the Atlantic Ocean. The main level features a formal sitting room with fireplace, drawing room, living room, family room, library, dining room, and an expansive chef's kitchen. Two decks face the sand dunes and the sea.
Upstairs are four large en suite bedrooms, including a luxurious master suite. A smaller bedroom on the lower level can be used for guests or staff, or as a study. Further highlights include a den, two offices or art studios, two powder rooms, three fireplaces, a laundry room, and basement.
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The two-story guest residence offers four bedrooms and three bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and laundry room.
Red Gate’s 340 acres come with over a mile of private Atlantic Ocean beachfront, two freshwater ponds, a vegetable garden and blueberry patch, an outdoor pool, tennis court, and a fairy treehouse, The original hunting cabin still exists, and additional structures include a three-bedroom caretaker's house, a barn, two garages (one with a two-bedroom apartment), a temperature-controlled storage building, and a boathouse.
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