Kenwood Park grew up in the shadow of the storied Kenwood neighborhood in Bethesda. And like a younger sibling, Kenwood Park’s architecture, landscaping and development are, in a sense, a reaction to the stately older community.
“It is my understanding the neighborhood was developed as a reaction to Kenwood, which had covenants restricting who could live there,” said Linda Chaletzky, a Kenwood Park resident and real estate agent with Evers & Co.
That’s the same story told by Austin King, the treasurer for Kenwood Park Citizens Association, who just happened to live in Kenwood with her parents when she was younger.
“[Kenwood Park] started out being a Jewish neighborhood because the covenants in Kenwood would not allow Jews or blacks or any ethnicities,” said King, who added that the history was instrumental in creating the international flavor that still seasons Kenwood Park today. “Now it has every creed and color, which is very interesting to me. I like that.”
Kenwood Park was built between 1954 and 1970, when demand for housing soared amid the Baby Boom that followed World War II. Developer Edmund Bennett helped fill that gap, building on the north side of Kenwood Country Club, which was created as a lure for homebuyers in Kenwood to the south. Kenwood Park was built for anyone with the money to buy.
“The major developers didn’t wait for the civil rights act to start developing,” Chaletzky said.
In stark contrast to Kenwood’s elegant Tudor and Georgian manor homes, Kenwood Park houses are a mix of architectural styles from mid-century modern ranches to more traditional homes on big lots.
“The older part [of Kenwood Park] tends to have more ramblers and splits and the newer part is ’70s construction, [which] tends to be a little bit more diverse, a little bit bigger houses and lots and you see more colonials,” Chaletzky said.
Because Kenwood Park grew up when modern design was fashionable, the neighborhood acquired about a dozen or so mid-century designs favored by Bennett, who went on to achieve great acclaim for his modernist planned communities, Carderock Springs in Bethesda and New Mark Commons in Rockville. He built houses with many rear-view windows, courtyards, carports and garages built into hills. Kenwood Park’s unleveled lots and old growth trees played right into Bennett’s building philosophy.
“These homes have a lot of glass and they paid a lot of attention to situating the houses well so that they blended in with the landscape,” said Mary Corbin Sies, a professor at the University of Maryland who has made Modernism in Maryland her specialty.
“Some of these houses just have stunning views of the backyard.”
The homes appealed to the professional and managerial suburbanites attracted to Washington after the war to work in government and international agencies.
“In many cases, they were looking for something a little bit different from the dominant brick colonial revival architecture that is so ubiquitous in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs,” Sies said.
All the houses in Kenwood Park are unique.
“In this neighborhood, the exterior is frequently not a determinant of what you will find behind the front door because people have done fabulous renovations in their houses,” Chaletzky said.
Because of the neighborhood’s relative youth, the homes are a decent size, even by today’s standards, with four or five bedrooms and usually sporting a garage or carport. They cost from the mid-$800s to nearly $2 million with styles for all tastes, including some recent large teardown/rebuilds.
“Kenwood Park has some small houses and larger houses,” Chaletzky said. “They aren’t all huge, which is nice, so that if you are a small family or an individual you can find a house that you will like in this neighborhood as well as if you have a large family.”
That is probably why this eclectic area appeals to such a wide audience. “We are lucky, we have all ages,” King said. “Young families with little kids and then we have grandparents and retired people who have lived here all their lives. You have someone of every age and description.”
