Romance and tragedy: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' Martha’s Vineyard farm expected to smash records

Camelot they called it and in the US where the lines of fantasy and reality blur like no other place, it’s a near-perfect appellation.

The romance and tragedy of the Kennedy clan is writ large in 20th-century history and their absorbing story continues its reach across the decades.

Former first lady Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis’ captivating Red Gate Farm on Martha’s Vineyard is expected to smash the sale record for this exclusive part of the world; on the market for $US65 million ($93 million).

Bought 40 years ago, the 140-hectare property includes over 1.5 kilometres of Atlantic Ocean beachfront on the Massachusetts island.

The Kennedy associations with the Cape Cod region stretch back to 1926 when patriarch Joe Kennedy purchased the family’s first property.

The images of the rich, handsome and powerful at play on both land and Nantucket Sound remain some of the most vivid of their generation – boating off the Cape and taking drinks on the broad porches of the family compound – just a few of many idyllic scenes.  President John F Kennedy and Jackie were the quintessential charismatic couple who came to represent the optimistic post-war age.

After the president’s death and following her subsequent marriage to Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, Kennedy Onassis sought the bucolic sanctuary of the area.

In a statement on launching the property to market recently, daughter Caroline Kennedy remarked of her mother: “When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit.”

Purchased by Kennedy Onassis in 1979, the property consisted only of fields rolling up to the wild dunes and an old hunter’s cabin, which remains today. She engaged architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen to help her realise her vision.

The Cape Cod-style main house is a classic of its kind with steep shingle roofs, high gables and minimal external ornamentation – a perfect expression of the American country house vernacular.

There are five en suite bedrooms and the pared-back, elegant style of the living spaces is timeless, drawing in the serene views of the waters and hills.

The house was refurbished in 2000 by renowned architect Deborah Bourke under the supervision of Caroline Kennedy and retains its easy connection to the surrounding environment so beloved of the former first lady.

“The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her a world where she could be so close to nature,” Caroline said in the statement.

Indeed the careful nurturing of the grounds and wetlands here has meant it has become an important sanctuary for birdlife, in particular.

Tracey Atkins, managing director of Melbourne company Goldeneye Media, spent time with Caroline to produce the video that accompanies the marketing campaign for the property.

“It was an incredible experience,” she says. “The place is so idyllic.  It really does feel like the ultimate escape; a property to gather the family to and really relax.”

As another generation has grown, one more chapter of the star-crossed Kennedys’ tale closes, with Caroline hoping her mother’s legacy will continue.

“We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations.”