John F. Kennedy Grave Site
Some of us will always remember where we were when President Kennedy was shot.
Eight months before his assassination he paid a visit to Arlington House which had recently been renamed the Robert E. Lee National Memorial. Apparently on leaving he soaked up the spectacular view of the cemetery as well as the capital city, purportedly stating, “I could spend forever here.”
Immediately following Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas there were many questions as to where he would be buried. Most presidents are buried in their home states, if not their home towns, in fact only Taft had been buried in Arlington. However, is wife Jacqueline Kennedy, stated, “he belongs to the people” and rightly predicted that many people would want to visit his grave so she requested that her husband be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
The initial plot was 20 feet by 30 feet and was surrounded by a white picket fence. During the first year often more than 3,000 people an hour visited the Kennedy gravesite, and on weekends an estimated 50,000 people visited. Three years after Kennedy's death, more than 16 million people had come to visit the Kennedy plot.
Because of the large crowds, cemetery officials and members of the Kennedy family decided that a more suitable site should be constructed. Although Kennedy was being buried in Arlington, not his home state of Massachusetts, it was considered important that the memorial and grave should reflect early New England burial traditions which were comprised of a simple granite headstone set flat in the ground surrounded by grass. To this end the grave area is paved with irregular stones of Cape Cod granite, which were quarried around 1817 near the site of the president's home and selected by members of his family. Fescue and clover were planted in the crevices to give the appearance of stones lying naturally in a Massachusetts field.
The new design incorporated the eternal flame from the first site. Lighted by Mrs. Kennedy during the funeral, the Eternal Flame burns from the centre of a five-foot circular flat-granite stone at the head of the grave. The burner is a specially designed apparatus created by the Institute of Gas Technology of Chicago. A constantly flashing electric spark near the tip of the nozzle relights the gas should the flame be extinguished by rain, wind or accident. The fuel is natural gas and is mixed with a controlled quantity of air to achieve the color and shape of the flame.
President Kennedy’s two deceased children — Patrick Kennedy, who died in infancy a few months prior to the assassination, and Arabella Kennedy, whose grave marker simply reads “Daughter” as she was stillborn and did not receive a birth certificate or an official name — were interred alongside their father. Jacqueline Kennedy was interred after her death in 1994.
John F. Kennedy Grave Site
Some of us will always remember where we were when President Kennedy was shot.
Eight months before his assassination he paid a visit to Arlington House which had recently been renamed the Robert E. Lee National Memorial. Apparently on leaving he soaked up the spectacular view of the cemetery as well as the capital city, purportedly stating, “I could spend forever here.”
Immediately following Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas there were many questions as to where he would be buried. Most presidents are buried in their home states, if not their home towns, in fact only Taft had been buried in Arlington. However, is wife Jacqueline Kennedy, stated, “he belongs to the people” and rightly predicted that many people would want to visit his grave so she requested that her husband be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
The initial plot was 20 feet by 30 feet and was surrounded by a white picket fence. During the first year often more than 3,000 people an hour visited the Kennedy gravesite, and on weekends an estimated 50,000 people visited. Three years after Kennedy's death, more than 16 million people had come to visit the Kennedy plot.
Because of the large crowds, cemetery officials and members of the Kennedy family decided that a more suitable site should be constructed. Although Kennedy was being buried in Arlington, not his home state of Massachusetts, it was considered important that the memorial and grave should reflect early New England burial traditions which were comprised of a simple granite headstone set flat in the ground surrounded by grass. To this end the grave area is paved with irregular stones of Cape Cod granite, which were quarried around 1817 near the site of the president's home and selected by members of his family. Fescue and clover were planted in the crevices to give the appearance of stones lying naturally in a Massachusetts field.
The new design incorporated the eternal flame from the first site. Lighted by Mrs. Kennedy during the funeral, the Eternal Flame burns from the centre of a five-foot circular flat-granite stone at the head of the grave. The burner is a specially designed apparatus created by the Institute of Gas Technology of Chicago. A constantly flashing electric spark near the tip of the nozzle relights the gas should the flame be extinguished by rain, wind or accident. The fuel is natural gas and is mixed with a controlled quantity of air to achieve the color and shape of the flame.
President Kennedy’s two deceased children — Patrick Kennedy, who died in infancy a few months prior to the assassination, and Arabella Kennedy, whose grave marker simply reads “Daughter” as she was stillborn and did not receive a birth certificate or an official name — were interred alongside their father. Jacqueline Kennedy was interred after her death in 1994.