Howard Avenue Park

In front of the Society for the Prevention of Blindness Antique Shop lies a park with rows of benches on a gently slanting hill. This makes the park a popular gathering place for music lovers in the summer when local musicians perform. It is also a popular area for weary shoppers to sit and rest before more shopping along Antique Row. As you walk along Howard Avenue, try to imagine when it was no more than a dusty “main street” with a trolley line that many local folks relied on between 1906 and the 1930s to take them toward Chevy Chase Lake and on to Washington, DC.

The current bank building at 3706 was completed in 1955, but the original Kensington Bank was constructed in 1908 and the roofline can still be seen from the alley on the left. The Kensington Bank was a branch of the Farmers Bank and Trust of Montgomery County.