According to local historian Chuck Langerman, Massachusetts U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy held a presidential campaign rally in the parking lot of the Cheltenham Shopping Center on October 29, 1960. The Cheltenham Shopping Center/Cheltenham Square Mall had opened in 1959.
The same day, JFK spoke at Snellenburg’s Shopping Center in Willow Grove. Video footage of his appearance can be found below.
As the Inquirer reported on October 30, 1960:
Kennedy’s day began with a 10:00 AM speech at Lawrence Park Shopping Center, an hour behind schedule because he slept late after a hard day Friday.
He passed through a number of Delaware and Montgomery County communities where he received stirring and emotional receptions from his followers. He spoke at Chester, Upper Darby, Norristown, Bala Cynwyd Shopping Center, Willow Grove and Cheltenham Shopping Center.
Excerpts from his Cheltenham speech:
We are both here for the same purpose, and that is to participate in the election of a President of the United States in a time of danger, hazard and opportunity, and I want to make it very clear, though I keep reading about all the undecided voters that there still are in the United States, I think that anyone who listens to the speeches of the two candidates, who studies the record of the two parties, who studies our position in the world and our position in this country, cannot possibly be any longer undecided.
I believe the Sixties will be difficult for the United States. I do not believe that there is any doubt that we can maintain our freedom, but I think it is going to be a hard, close struggle to maintain the balance of freedom in the world today.
I come here, to this shopping center, which is a symbol of our material progress, and ask you to join in committing the United States to the defense of freedom all over the globe. Thank you. (Applause)
Excerpt from his Willow Grove speech:
As long as there are 35 per cent of our brightest boys and girls who graduate from high school and never see the inside of a college, as long as there are 50 per cent of the capacity of our steel mills unused, as long as we are today building 30 per cent less homes than we did a year ago, as long as we are second in space, as long as we are not able to make progress to develop all of our potential and all of our resources, both human and material to serve the cause of freedom, then quite obviously we are not meeting our responsibilities and we cannot meet our responsibilities around the world.
Video footage courtesy of the President John Fitzgerald Kennedy Youtube Channel:
Ten days later, JFK defeated Republican incumbent Vice President Richard M. Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of all time.
For the full speeches by JFK, you can visit the former President’s online library here and here.
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