Updated February 19, 2025
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum reopened Wednesday morning after shutting down suddenly Tuesday afternoon as a result of federal layoffs.
Alan Price, director of the library, was on site for the opening. He said the museum shut down after five probationary employees who worked in ticketing and other front-of-the-facility roles were fired.
No one else was trained to handle ticketing, which forced the closure, Price said.
Admission will be free until other staff is trained, he said.
Presidential Library and Museum Director Alan Price. (Emily Piper-Vallillo/WBUR)
While the decision shocked the dismissed workers, it resounded with the staffers who are left, Price said.
“It was also quite shocking for the rest of the staff.” He called the move “unfortunate,” but also sounded a conciliatory tone, saying he could “understand the drive behind it … the president’s desire to reduce the force overall.”
Among the visitors at the library Wednesday were Jennifer McGrath and her 17-year-old son Connor. She said she tried to enter the facility Tuesday but couldn’t see any workers. A security guard asked her to wait while he found someone. But when he came back, the guard told her the building was closed because “we’ve all been fired.”
“ People were crying. It was surreal,” she said. “We were with a gentleman who had just come in from Canada who said, ‘I don’t understand what’s happening in your country.’ “
Katie Voss said she and her husband Brian took her 13-year-old Connor to the museum to teach him about history. She said they decided to come Wednesday because “who knows if it will be shut down again.”
“It’s vital that our children learn about history,” she said. “And the way that the world is today, the state of things, it’s not hopeful and not promising. And so I just want to make sure my son has a chance to learn about our democracy and JFK and the president that he was.”
Price said the library now has 26 federal employees, after the five were let go. WBUR is seeking responses on how many total workers the library has; some are funded separately by the library foundation. Price said the foundation separately employs about 22 people.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the workers were let go, as Price said some employees’ pay is covered by the foundation and are “not actually coming out of congressionally appropriated funds.”
“It doesn’t actually save the government much money at all of laying off those particular employees,” he said.
The facility, one of 16 presidential libraries, is overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries and the National Archives and Records Administration. Price said he did not feel the JFK library had been specifically targeted by the administration; other libraries may have been affected in ways that didn’t immediately impact their ability to accept visitors.
Messages sent to the National Archives for more information were not immediately answered.
This article was originally published on February 19, 2025.
