Property Record
N4635 COUNTY ROAD Y
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | ROSE MARIE KENNEDY HOUSE |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | Yes |
| Reference Number: | 224972 |
| Location (Address): | N4635 COUNTY ROAD Y |
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| County: | Jefferson |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Jefferson |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 6 |
| Range: | 14 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 1 |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1958 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2013 |
| Historic Use: | house |
| Architectural Style: | Ranch |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Brick |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | Rose Marie Kennedy, often called ‘Rosemary,’ was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1918 to Joseph and Rosemary Kennedy of the prominent Kennedy family of American politics. As a child it became apparent that she had difficulty learning, though she outwardly appeared entirely normal. Because of her intellectual disabilities, her father had her lobotomized at the age of 23 in 1941. The procedure left her in a near vegetative state, and she recovered slowly and incompletely. Rosemary was moved to St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children in the Town of Jefferson in 1949. Her condition was kept a secret outside of the family, though many people in the surrounding area knew of the ‘Kennedy girl’ at St. Coletta. In 1958, a private house was built for Rose Marie adjacent to the school’s Alverno Dormitories. In 1961, her presence at St. Coletta became public after the election of her brother, John F. Kennedy, as President of the United States. She lived in her house at St. Coletta until her death in 2005. Rose Marie Kennedy’s life story had a profound indirect influence on the field of mental retardation and the social perception of mental disabilities in modern America. This influence can be seen in growing public awareness and empathy after her existence at St. Coletta became public, the Kennedy family’s financial contributions to St. Coletta and other institutions, John F. Kennedy’s presidential commission on the subject, Eunice Shriver’s development of the Special Olympics, Robert Kennedy’s exposure of poor institutional treatment, and Ted Kennedy’s sponsorship of the Americans with Disabilities Act. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Dictionary of Wisconsin History: People. Wisconsin Historical Society website. Leamer, Laurence. The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family. New York: Villard Books, 1994, pages 3-24. Shorter, Edward. The Kennedy Family and the Story of Mental Retardation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2000, pages 3-18. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |