[4] Following graduation from Yale, Kent returned to Chicago and took up his father's real estate and livestock businesses, where he had inherited, among other interests, a tenement block adjacent to the Hull House settlement.

[5][3] Kent became a donor and volunteer at Hull House, and served on its Board of Trustees, where he would meet Jane Addams and other leading Chicago reformers.

[5] Kent subsequently ran successfully for alderman in 1895 and founded the Municipal Voter's League of Chicago in 1896, a group that used publicity to push corrupt politicians from office.

[6][3] In 1907, Kent returned to California from Chicago and entered federal politics by winning election in 1910 as a progressive Republican to the 62nd United States Congress.

"[9] In Congress, Kent pushed legislation barring Asian immigrants from owning land, becoming U.S. citizens, and entering the United States altogether.

[12] After a local water company began condemnation proceedings in 1907 in an effort to create a reservoir on the site, Kent quickly deeded 295 acres of the property to the U.S. Department of the Interior for the establishment of a national monument under the recently passed Antiquities Act.

[13][14] Established as a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt on January 6, 1908, Kent asked the site be named in honor of conservationist John Muir.

"[3] After leaving Congress, Kent was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the United States Tariff Commission in 1917.