(Robert) Kennedy homestead goes on the market

[MaineDem]

McLEAN, Va. -- Hickory Hill, the estate where Robert and Ethel Kennedy raised their sprawling family and hosted an array of political, social and human rights notables, is going on the market

The antebellum mansion on almost six acres has been in the Kennedy family for a half-century. The 18-room house has 13 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces, two pools, paddocks, a small movie theater and lighted tennis courts.

The asking price: $25 million. It is listed with Washington Fine Properties, an affiliate of Sotheby's International Realty.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2003/10/20/kennedy_homestead_goes_on_the_market/

[liberalhistorian]

1. Ooooohhhhhh, I've always loved pictures of

Hickory Hill, and I've always liked the Kennedys! What I wouldn't give to have 25 million cool ones right now! Bobby and Ethel bought it (or, rather, daddy bought it for them) not long after their marriage and it is, indeed, one helluva mansion.

[cybildisobedience]

2. Beg to differ?

Didn't Robert and Ethel Kennedy purchase Hickory Hill from Jack and Jackie, who originally planned on having a large family? I'd always read that Jack and Jackie reconciled themselves to the possibility that they would have a small family after a series of failed pregancies, and that they reluctantly decided to give up Hickory Hill -- which then was sold to Bobby and Ethel to house their growing brood.
I know there are bigger issues to argue about, but just wanted to mention that.

[piece sine]

3. it's the LAND, folks!

God bless Bobby 'n Ethel, etc. etc....but six wooded acres in one of the most pricey negihborhoods in the world is, alone, worth $25 mil. in DC's completely crazy real estate market.

It's an island of green surrounded by huge, garish McMansions squeezed into tiny lots. McLean, VA is NOTHING like when Bobby was alivwe. it used to be rural back then. Teh buyer might -- and I mena MIGHT -- save the old house but the estate is certain to be parceled into a multi-million dollar chessboard with cheesy houses the size of Rhodes Island.

[AP]

5. JFK bought a big plot of land in Newport and they were going to build

a mansion there for their big family.

[Neutrino]

4. A lot of high-end properties came on the market last week--

for example, Oprah Winfreys farm in Indiana. Maybe smart money has
been listening to Templeton's advice to liquidate U.S. properties
and stocks. It is said that he has never been so Bearish on the U.S.
Economy. I don't know if he will be proven right, but lots of folks
are listening.