Hammersmith – Rhode Island
In the 1990s, Hammersmith Farm in Newport opened for tours, and we made the trip to see it. The estate is best known as the childhood summer home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and as the site of the wedding reception following her marriage to John F. Kennedy in 1953. After the ceremony of St. Mary’s Church, more than a thousand guests gathered on the sweeping lawns of the estate overlooking Narragansett Bay, making it one of the most celebrated society weddings of its time.
The house itself was part of the estate owned by Jackie’s stepfather, Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr, and her mother, Janet Lee Auchincloss. For Jackie and her sister, Hammersmith Farm was not just a grand Newport property but a place of summers, family gatherings, and the kind of coastal setting that Newport has long been known for.
For a brief period after the property left the Auchincloss family, the estate was opened to the public as a historic attraction, allowing us to tour the house and walk the grounds. It returned to private residence and the tours ended. Walking through the house and looking out over the broad lawns gave us a glimpse into the personal side of a family whose lives were so often lived in the public eye.
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