[5] 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.

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.

[6] Originally a farming community at Knowles Station, Kensington developed into a summer refuge for Washington residents wishing to escape the capital's humidity.

In March 1975, Kensington gained attention regionally when Sheila and Katherine Lyon walked to Wheaton Plaza, a local shopping mall, and never returned home.

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.

[9] 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.

Kensington is located in Montgomery County, northwest of Silver Spring, northeast of Bethesda, west of Wheaton and southeast of Rockville.

Kensington is primarily a bedroom community for workers who commute to jobs in the Washington, D.C., area, but it has some commercial enterprises, including "Antique Row" on Howard Avenue, the West Howard Antique District, and Kaiser-Permanente's Kensington facility, plus art shops, restaurants, supermarkets, auto repair shops, hardware stores, and others.

The most prominent of these is Maryland Route 185 (Connecticut Avenue), which provides the most direct link between Kensington and both Interstate 495 (the Capital Beltway) and Washington, D.C.

The other major state highway serving the town is Maryland Route 193, which follows University Boulevard and Greenbelt Road east from Kensington across the northern and northeastern suburbs of Washington.