Daily What?! John F. Kennedy Had An Apartment and Campaign Office at 277 Park Avenue

Did you know that a McKim, Mead, and White apartment building that was once located at  277 Park Avenue housed John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1957? John and Bobby Kennedy used two floors as 1960 Presidential Campaign offices, part of a large Park Avenue Election Headquarters. Joseph Kennedy, the family patriarch and unofficial financier of the campaign, held a suite at the nearby Waldorf Astoria while other soon-to-be cabinet members were in and out of suites at the Biltmore Hotel just to the south.

In these rooms, the Kennedy brothers and team were able to craft a plan to strategically squeak past Richard Nixon, the incumbent Vice President under Eisenhower. JFK accepted the presidential nomination at the 1960 Democratic National Convention at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Three years later on November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated, thus fortifying the memory and historical significance of all things JFK, including the land at 277 Park Avenue in New York City.

Today, 277 Park Avenue rises high and proud into the Manhattan Midtown skyline. Fifty stories of black glass, steel, and concrete are home to a variety of tenants, but it is perhaps best known for being part of the J.P. Morgan Chase Headquarters compound which occupies 270 Park Ave and much of 277 Park.

To learn more about JFK, check out An Unfinished Life, John F Kennedy 1917 – 1963 by Robert Dallek.

Get in touch with the author @newyorkcityhistory. See more quirky NYC facts and discoveries in our “Daily What?!” series. Submit your own via Twitter with the hashtag #DailyWhat.