I was getting a ton of hits for Caroline Kennedy because of the Democratic Convention, so I was going to do a post on her. Well, one thing led to another:
Jackie O. loved New York City. She wanted to bring up her children there. From 1964 to 1994 she lived on the 15th floor of 1040 Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is on the north-east corner of Fifth Avenue and 85th Street, across the street from Central Park and a block up from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A year after her husband, President John F. Kennedy, was shot dead she moved to New York to 1040 with her two little children, John, 4, and Caroline, 7.
She moved there because it was close to her sister Lee Radziwill and because she wanted Caroline to go to school at Sacred Heart on 91st Street, one of the best girls’ schools in the city. She also knew that the Upper East Side would pretty much let her be. She went to mass at St Thomas More on 89th Street.
She bought the entire 15th floor in 1964 for $250,000 (200,000 crowns). In 1996, after she died, it was sold for $9.5 million (2 million crowns). In 2008 it sold for $19.5 million (1.5 million crowns). One of the later owners was the 33rd richest person in the world.
She filled the apartment with her books, her paintings and her art objects. She had a piano she could not play and a telescope which she used. She had no central air conditioning.
The place was friendly rather than grand. She wanted a private place for her family and friends to enjoy and feel at home in. It changed little over 30 years: “She was ageless and her style was ageless,” her designer said about the place.
Because so many of her things were sold off after her death, hundreds of people own things that were once there.
With only two floors above it, it has a wonderful view of Central Park: you can see the Reservoir, now named after her, and the 3,400-year-old Temple of Dendur, which she had helped to bring to the Met museum from Egypt. The 15th floor has a terrace where you can step outside and take in the view.
From 1996 to 2000 much of the 15th floor was rebuilt and the layout changed somewhat.
In 2006 the 15th floor had:
- Facing Central Park:
- master bedroom
- library (with fireplace)
- living room (with fireplace)
- dining room (with fireplace)
- terrace
- four bedrooms in all
- three terraces in all
- two dressing rooms
- a staff room
- conservatory
- five and a half bathrooms
- a wine room
- a gallery
- a chef’s kitchen
- a laundry room
- a cloak room
The building went up in 1930, done in a neo-Classical style. It was designed by Rosario Candela, who did many luxury apartments in the city in the 1920s and 1930s. The roofline is pretty strange and sets it apart. The building has 17 floors and only 27 apartments.
The building has a doorman but no garage or health club.
See also:
- Jackie’s Apartment – has good pictures and the 2000 floor plan
- Caroline Kennedy – Jackie’s daughter, who grew up there
- Monticello
- New York
- Bobby Kennedy
- Maria Shriver
Abagond 
Hillary did well last night I thought.
LikeLike
I am glad she decided to join arms with Obama in what seemed like a whole-hearted way. It makes me feel better about her.
She stands to gain from an Obama defeat, but as Pat Buchanan pointed out, Nixon campaigned for Goldwater in 1964 harder than Goldwater did. She has to do the same.
LikeLike
Jackie Kennedy was not an icon, nor was she one whom would have believed herself to be iconic. Jackie was the epitome of grace and charm, with a style and spirit not to be defined nor imitated. Iconic? No. Special and an American masterpiece, most assuredly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mrs. Jackie Kennedy Onassis , fue y sera un icono en la historia , siempre se la recuerda por su elegancia y distincion , el buen gusto y refinamiento la acompano hasta el fin de sus dias. Supo llevar con valentia hasta ultimo momento su cruel enfermedad y que nuestro Senor la tenga descansando en Paz.
Martin Ponce de Leon (h) / Buenos Aires / Argentina
LikeLike
One thing in the article caught my eye: a reference to some of the furnishings in the apartment being worn. Though very young during the kennedy administration, my most vivid memories are of her televised white house tour, the immaculate lincoln w/the attractive american couple being turned into a miniature slaughterhouse, and the jfk funeral, at which she performed admirably. It is a rhetorical, abstract equation about the worn furnishings and her desire for her official picture as first lady jbk. Did she spend her final years trying to block the grisly image of dallas on 22 november 1963? I have read that under the influence of mrs. Auchincloss of newport she was taught to be maticulous. Oops! She reputedly wished the portrait had more shadows, contrasts of light/colors…….something innate to persons of french descent?
LikeLiked by 1 person
The former us first lady did well for herself post-dallas: a high apartment in nyc and, for a while, a private island. Her battles w/the fifth estate, former colleagues in a way, were well known. Still, she chose to reveal herself w/publishing and saving grand central station, etc., echoes of her previous labors while in the white house. One can imagine her living happily ever after administring to jfk and his health issues while doing time as figure at a university……….helping him as she did while he wrote profiles in courage. Politics for jfk, it is said, were likely entered into because of the untimely death of joe jr who had become the polished ‘product’ of joe sr. As one of her biographers claimed: we will never know.
LikeLike
We know a great deal; such as the fact that Sorenson wrote Profiles in Courage and was paid by Old Joe.
We know what JFK did the night before his wedding to Jackie.
We know what JFK did the night before his inaugural.
We know why Patrick Bouvier Kennedy died.
We know how much Old Joe paid to Jackie to keep her from divorcing Jack.
We know when JFK and RFK quit paying Joe’s debt to Sam Giancana and that it cost them their lives since Sam no longer had a reason to protect them from Traficante.
We know what Jackie meant when she said, “If they’re killing Kennedys, my kids are next” before moving to Greece.
We know that the only way that John Jr. could pass the bar was to have an (illegal) “private” test from a family friend.
We know that Jackie paid Michael Jackson a third of a million dollars and that once he got the money he quit taking her calls and refused to fulfill his part of the contract.
We know that she lived with a married man until the day she died. Did Templesman ever go back to his wife? Who cares? Jackie didn’t!
We know what John Jr. meant when he said, “My mother died in her own time and in her own way” and that such an act is against Catholic doctrine.
We know that the Catholic hierarchy had “special rules” for the Kennedys.
What does it take to ignore massive adultery, and corruption, and dirty-money under the table, and families doing grave harm to their own relatives, and cheating, and lying, and illegal drug-usage, and STDs, and staying with people who are involved in murder, and paying for crooked elections, and no consequences for any actions. Pretending that there is ANY “grace” in that family requires a degree of blindness that defies any modicum of “truth.”
LikeLike
In regards to the last post, unless you get it from the horse’s mouth, don’t believe it. What these pictures show is Jacqueline Onassis’ life was nothing like what the press said it was.
The first time I saw these pictures, I was amazed at just how simple a life this grand woman lived. We were always being told–in the press–how much of “Ari’s money” Mrs Onassis was spending. Well, from the looks of her apartment, it certainly wasn’t on making a grand home for herself. To me, these pictures show that Jackie was so much more than her press. From the way the they wrote, I thought her apartment would reveal a woman who spent lavishly on herself and her surroundings. Obviously, the press was mistaken.
What these pictures do show is that Mrs Onassis was a woman who was not concerned with living up to an image the press and the public made for her; these pictures show Mrs Onassis to be a normal human being who experienced much of her private life in very normal ways. I do not see a woman who felt entitled.
In closing, when I learned how Mrs Onassis accepted the end of her life with such dignity, I began to understand that you can’t believe everything you read–she was obviously so much more. How she managed to live such a normal life with such a grand spotlight always pointed in her direction, is a testament to the character of Jacqueline Onassis.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Does anyone know the square footage of the apartment?
Did she have a private elevator?
Are there apartments above the 15th floor?
Thanks!
LikeLike
After looking at Jackie’s home and how comfortable it looked, I realized she simply enjoyed her privacy and family. Jackie lived the way she wanted, not the way others perceived her to live. Only Jackie knew why she married the men she married and why she choose to live the last years of her life with a man she adored. Over the years we read books, saw movies, all with different views on the Kennedys, their affairs, their politics, their father, Joe and the saga of all their lives. Jackie was no fool, JFK never fooled her. She knew what kind of man he was and what he did, her only fault was she loved him. If there was a conspiracy that took JFK away, it did not matter, for her, he was gone, so tragically taken by her side. Onassis was the “mystery” that we probably will never understand. Did she marry for money, the shelter he provided at the time, the lavish lifestyle or just for the buzz it created. No one knows for sure, but I do not think she loved him, just appreciated what he gave her during that time. She was a good mother and that is truly all she cared about. America was in awe of this woman and those who were fortunate to be alive when she was our First Lady loved her youth, her beauty and yes her grace. Every little girl dreamed to be like her. She left this world never sitting down with Oprah or Diane. And for that I admire her even more.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’ve read 13 different books about Jackie. The biggest conclusion I came to was that even though she never told anyone, I don’t think she ever really got over JFK’s death
LikeLike
She was the true embodiment of an Aristocrat.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Jackie was a woman of education, grace, and most of all a mother, look at most of the other Kennedy childern came out, she sure did something right!!!!!
LikeLiked by 2 people
I was watching CBS Sunday Morning, November 22th will be the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. They talked about the Kenndy’s and the legend of Camelot. Jackie Kennedy was elegant and graceful. She was class and she lived her life on her own terms. She was a dutiful wife and mother. She was a fashion icon of her time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to see Jackie all the time when I was a child and she was fascinating. I grew up on Central Park West and 102nd street which was across the park from her residence, She would walk to her job @ Simon and Schuster every day and she was a regular NY’er. The paparazzi would hound the crap out of her and I remember she had to go to court and get a judge to demand the Paps give her three feet of space when they were hounding her. She has always been an icon to me and her children were so polite and very nice I have met her son John and he was one of the nicest kindest people I have ever met, very down-to-earth. May Jacqueline rest in peace.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Most buildings on the upper west and east sides of NYC were bizarre especially the roofs and most of these were built in very occult fashion, The building I grew uo in was an oddity 418 Central Park West , it was only ten floors and the building was very art-deco. I visited NYC in 2011 and visited the building and it is beautiful.All the buildings on Central park West had names like The Dakota, The San Remo, The Beresford, The Eldorado I had a friend who lived in the Eldorado and she lived on one of the upper floors where the interior of the building becane strangely reminiscent of an Aztec temple with painted birds and gargoyles carved into the crown moulding.Of course a lot of famous people lived on the park on Central Park Norh, 5th avenue and Central Park West and u sasw them all the time they knew u and u knew them and always said hi, this was way before all this celebrity-fueled nonsense. NY’ers treated famous people like anyone else.I remember seeing Christie Brinkley all the time she owned a toenhone on 82nd street and Central Park West, Esther Rolle from Good Times lived in 410 Central Park West, of course John and Yoko and Sean and Madonna, so many musicians and artists, harold Vick the legendary saxophonist lived in my building and so did concert pianist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg a favorite of Johnny Carson, she appeared on The Tonight Show quite a bit. To say my upbringing in NYC was idyllic and magical would be an understatement.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The commenter Kevin R says:
There is only one photo of her apartment, and from what other photos show, I am not sure if I agree with Kevin R.
Mrs Onassis’s interiors were not at flashy or vulgar, agreed.
But her furnishing and accoutrements conform to classic and mostly “French” taste which hardly comes at a knock-down price.
Parquet, French moulding, flatweave Aubusson, the same us of toile de jouy fabric or, Indian hand-blocked cotton, on walls and for double-lined curtains, original oils in antique gold-paint frames and so on, are many of the items (or decorating technques) that are seen in fine homes with not-modest budgets. This look is layered, elegant and expensive.
The knack is to NOT to appear “lavish”.
Mrs Onassis’s style seems similar to Lee Radziwill, her sister. Perhaps they had similar aspirations and perspectives when it came to their home styles.
Lee Radziwll’s New York apartment:
And here:http://www.smash-cult.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Raziwill-Park-Avenue-flat.jpg
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looks like most of the things in her apartment were well-worn. She doesn’t seem to have updated much. I’ve read that her bathroom hadn’t been updated since the 1950s and she had no dressing room for herself.
LikeLike
most of the opinions shared here describing those home pictures as not flashy meaning modest and lack of affluence are from people who does not appreciate aristocratic living and tastes .Jacky was well groomed ,have lived in the white house and has mingled and dined very well with the upper most class of the society, such furniture and decor is were she belongs, some are antique furnishings they aged not worn, and cost much more than the contemporary furniture ordinary people are used to.
LikeLike