KENSINGTON

A short history of Kensington

The area around Rock Creek where Kensington is located was primarily agricultural until 1873, when the B&O Railroad completed the Metropolitan Branch across Montgomery County. A community arose where the new railroad line intersected the old Rockville-to-Bladensburg road. This early settlement was first known as "Knowles Station".

In the early 1890s, Washington developer Brainard Warner began purchasing land parcels to build a planned Victorian community, complete with church, library, and local newspaper. Fascinated by a recent trip to London, Warner named his development "Kensington Park", the tenth and largest subdivision in the area. When the town was incorporated in 1894, Warner convinced the mayor and council to name it Kensington.

Originally a farming community at Knowles Station, Kensington developed into a summer refuge for Washington residents wishing to escape the capital's humidity. As years passed and more residents remained year-round, Kensington evolved into a commuter suburb. Commuters reached downtown Washington, D.C., on B&O passenger trains and, beginning in 1895, a streetcar line founded as Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway and later called the Kensington Railway Company.

The large southernmost section originally mapped out by Warner remains largely unchanged, and is a historically preserved zone. The only major changes in the town's basic layout have been the bridging of the original railroad crossing in 1937, and the extension and widening of Connecticut Avenue, the town's main thoroughfare, in 1957. As well, the right-of-way of the streetcar line, which was replaced with bus service in 1935, was paved to become Kensington Parkway.

In March 1975, Kensington gained attention regionally when Sheila and Katherine Lyon walked to Wheaton Plaza, a local shopping mall, and never returned home. Their abduction and murder was solved only in 2017.

The historic core of Kensington was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Kensington Historic District in 1980.

In the early 21st century, the town gained national attention three times in 10 months for events within a quarter-mile radius. In December 2001, the town responded to complaints from anonymous citizens by banning Santa Claus from the annual holiday parade. Protesters arrived at the parade en masse, including dozens of Santas riding everything from motorcycles to fire trucks. Eight months later, an Amtrak train derailed near the town center when the tracks separated at an overheated joint, injuring 95. And on October 2, 2002, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera became the fifth victim of the "Beltway snipers" while cleaning her car at a Kensington gas station.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Kensington, Maryland, revision 1379141813 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.