Irving Avenue, Hyannisport is the street that faced the front door of John F. Kennedy’s house in the famous Kennedy compound on Cape Cod.
It was the second house purchased by the family and formed one of the 3 houses in the grouping. Located a few hundred feet across a grassy lawn from the 17 room house initially rented and then purchased by is father Joe, it was the place Kennedy went to wait out election results on November 8, 1960 and to relax and unwind throughout his life. Kennedy was fond of the place.
But, however fond Kennedy was of the houses and adjacent beaches, the feeling was not entirely reciprocated by the local townsfolk. And, the antipathy and resentment went back decades, to the time that Irish interloper Joe Kennedy, Sr. had first spent his summers with his growing brood there.
In the summer of 1960, the town leaders had become particularly irritated about the legion of tourists, curiosity-seekers, journalists, and staff members over ran the quiet streets. In fact, the Civic committee had advocated that summer to cordon off access to the town. When told by police that this was not possible, rumblings went around the neighborhood of a protest meeting.
Left to deal with the town’s resentment on her own while her husband was in Los Angeles at the nominating convention, Jackie hit on the idea of constructing a wooden palisade on Irving avenue to separate that thoroughfare from her front door, which was a mere 13 feet away.
However, when JFK returned to the house after his successful nomination, he ordered construction of the retaining fence stopped at once, opting instead for a white picket fence and a squad of a dozen local cops to separate the house from the commotion on the street.
Thus Hyannisport and the Irving household managed to effect a polite, workable truce, although it was later known that the Barnstable township voting totals showed a resounding victory for Richard Nixon who bested Kennedy in voting 4,515 to 2,783.
[300, p. 5-6]