Neighborhood

Welcome to Kensington!

Come and experience our fascinating history, arts and culture. Take in a show at our live theater. Chat with local artists. Visit a historic one-room library, shop for antiques and home furnishing and dine at a quaint bistro. You will appreciate the welcoming charm that makes Kensington so unique. Enjoy exploring everything Kensington has to offer!

Mayor Peter Fosselman

The history of Kensington is reflected in the Victorian architectural vision of Brainard Warner, known as the “founder of Kensington.” Take the Kensington Historical Society's self-guided Walking Tour of Kensington, showcasing almost 40 different homes throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. View the Warner Mansion and its surrounding open space. Enjoy the historic one-room Noyes Library, now a unique children's library. Be sure to visit the still-operating train station, to find out why Kensington is known as Town “where the train still stops and the people still walk."  
 
The area around the Rock Creek basin where Kensington now sits was largely agricultural until 1873, when the B&O Railroad completed a rail line, which crossed Montgomery County. The community first sprouted at the spot where the railroad line intersected the old Rockville-to- Bladensburg Road. This early settlement initially was known as Knowles Station. In the early 1890s, Brainard Warner, a Washington financier, purchased parcels of land to build a planned “garden” community, and added a public library and a local newspaper. Inspired by a recent trip to London, Warner first named his subdivision Kensington Park. After incorporation in 1894, the town was renamed Kensington.
 
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, with an original rail line from the port of Baltimore, west to the Ohio River at Wheeling and Parkersburg, West Virginia.
 
Kensington continued to develop as a summer refuge for Washington residents wishing to escape the capital's humid summers. As years passed, it became a year-round home for all of its residents. The large, southernmost section originally mapped out by Brainard Warner remains largely unchanged since its inception, and is a historically protected zone.