Kennedy Compound, Hyannisport

Three houses on six acres of Hyannis Port waterfront — that's the physical fact. Joseph Kennedy Sr. rented the original cottage in 1926, purchased it two years later, and over the following decades his children acquired the neighboring properties. The family gathered here to wait out the 1960 presidential election returns. From 1961 to 1963 it served as the summer White House. In 2012, the main house was donated to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The compound remains private; the water is the only honest vantage point.