Kent is a neighborhood in Northwest

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, bounded by Loughboro Road to the north, MacArthur Boulevard to the southwest, and Chain Bridge Road and Battery Kemble Park to the southeast. It is a suburban neighborhood, home to some of the most expensive homes in the city with an average home sales price in 2012 of $1.7 million ($ today).

Geography

Kent is a triangular-shaped neighborhood between Loughboro Road to the north, MacArthur Boulevard to the southwest, and Chain Bridge Road and

Battery Kemble Park Battery Kemble Park is a park in Northwest Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Lo ...

to the southeast. The area was long considered part of Palisades, the community that lies to the south, opposite MacArthur Boulevard. The neighborhood is bisected by Arizona Avenue which runs from southwest to northeast and divides it into two distinct areas. The hilly western section was developed in the 1930s and 1940s in a suburban style of that time with similar-looking Colonial-style houses. The east developed more organically beginning before the Civil War and maintains a more rural character. The neighborhood is entirely residential with all commercial development located along MacArthur Boulevard.

History

The earliest habitation after the organization of the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in 1801 was along the road to the

Chain Bridge A chain bridge is a historic form of suspension bridge for which chains or eyebars were used instead of wire ropes to carry the bridge deck. A famous example is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest. Construction types are, as for other suspen ...

across the Potomac River (now Chain Bridge Road) which lies at what is now the neighborhood’s eastern border. The population grew during the Civil War, when settlements of freed and escaped slaves sprang up around Battery Kemble, one

Civil War Defenses of Washington The Civil War Defenses of Washington were a group of Union Army fortifications that protected the federal capital city, Washington, D.C., from invasion by the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War (see Washington, D.C., in the Am ...

located to the east of the road. After the war, blacks continued to settled in the area on land they were given or that they bought from other landowners. Remnants of this community include a small cemetery established in 1868 and an old schoolhouse. When the lots in this eastern section were finally subdivided, they assumed irregular shapes that reflected the land’s contours and previous land divisions. Unlike many parts of Washington, this area did not have restrictive covenants barring habitation by black people or

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

. Thus, the neighborhood became a haven for educated minorities, many of whom built houses designed by distinguished architects such as modernist

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

that were interspersed with 18th-century farmhouses and 19th-century bungalows.

Notable residents

Tucker Carlson Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show '' Tucker Carlson Tonight'' on Fox News since 2016. Carlson began ...

References

{{Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods in Northwest (Washington, D.C.) 1860s establishments in Washington, D.C. The Palisades (Washington, D.C.)

Geography

History

Notable residents

See also

References