Vacationers traveling on ferries in and out of Hyannis, Massachusetts, often think the distinctive mansion they pass at the harbor’s edge is the compound of the Kennedy family that long dominated the state’s politics.
But the Kennedy place, where President John F. Kennedy and his brothers Bobby and Edward spent time, is actually next door. The house at 151 Irving Ave. was built for another seasoned political bigwig, Thomas Taggart. He served six years as mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana, at the turn of the 20th century and helped develop that city’s public park system. Taggart’s Hyannis vacation house was completed in 1914, a dozen years before the Kennedys set up shop in the neighborhood.
Paul Grover and Matthew De Groot of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Robert Paul Properties recently listed the former Taggart home for $21.5 million. That’s the highest current sale price on Cape Cod. The most expensive house ever sold on the Cape was a $22.7 million transaction in 2024 in nearby Osterville, which Grover handled.
The columns at the seven-bedroom house’s front and back, and the fact that it sits on 3 acres in the heart of Hyannisport, as this part of town is called, make it an unusual property, Grover told Homes.com.
“It’s almost more like what you would see in the grand mansions at Newport," Rhode Island, he said. “It’s certainly much grander than the typical Cape shingled cottages or even the seaside estates.”
Taggart’s daughter, who sometimes stayed at the house with her family during the summer, hired The Olmsted Brothers firm to design the grounds as they appear today, including the hedges, trees and lawn, the current owners told Grover. The firm is operated by two sons of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The current owners said that, in more recent years, Taggart’s great-granddaughter lived in a nearby house on Irving Avenue.
Across the driveway from the main house is a substantial, six-bedroom guest house built in 1955. It includes two private apartments with separate entrances, creating opportunities for multi-generational living and on-site staff, Grover said. The guest house has its own address, 155 Irving.
Grover was also the listing agent when the Irving Avenue house last sold 25 years ago. The current owners initially used the property as a vacation home while raising their children, but they have lived there year-round more recently, he said.
During their years at the property, the owners replaced all the windows, finished the attic and added a striking stone wall between the main house and the beach. They didn’t change much else outside the house, Grover said. While the house is impressive, he said the 410 feet of beach frontage and the views of Nantucket Sound and Hyannis’ harbor might be the property’s most dramatic feature.