Kensington Town Hall 3710 Mitchell Street
The present Kensington Town Hall at 3710 Mitchell Street was formerly a National Guard Armory built in 1927. Several versions of the same plan were built throughout the state, but most of the other buildings have since been demolished or significantly altered.
In the Kensington Armory, the original entry ramp was removed in the mid-1970s and replaced with an arcaded ground-floor entry. This brick fortress-like structure sits firmly on a concrete base. Tower elements flank the main entry and prominent corners terminate the façade. Battlements at the roof line and masonry reinforcements at the openings add to the image of strength, as do the buttresses that mark off the bays in the rear drill hall portion of the building.
The lower rear of the building housed the Volunteer Fire Department from 1927 until 1946. Over the years the Armory was home to the National Guard Firing Range located across the hall from the Fire Department’s bowling alley. Upstairs, Kensington groups held theater and music productions. For a period starting in the 1950s the Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles had offices there and many local residents recall getting their first driver’s license in Kensington. In the mid-1970s the town purchased the Armory from the state. Since that time it has been serving as the Kensington Town Hall. It has housed a Toy Museum, boasts a “Victorian Room”, theater productions , dance classes, art exhibits, and is home to the Town Office, the Kensington Historical Society Archives, the Montgomery Municipal Cable television studio, and a Montgomery County Police Substation.
