Clum-Kennedy Garden

Clum-Kennedy Garden lies across the parkway – a one-acre garden, with paths curving past mature trees, azaleas, lilacs and boxwood. A grape arbor near the Frederick Avenue entrance supports an abundance of purple grapes in late summer. Several benches and picnic tables along the paths provide peaceful respite. This property was purchased in 1947 by newspaperman Cornelius Clum’s daughters, Helen, Mary and Bertha. The women continued to live in the house they grew up in, across Kensington Parkway (formerly named Prince Georg’s Avenue), and gradually turned the area from its natural overgrown state into a welcoming garden with a variety of local plants and flowers. In 1984, Bertha sold the garden to the Town of Kensington with the request that it be named in honor of her neighbor, Frank Kennedy, who helped maintain it in her later years. After Berthas’ death in 1987, the garden was renamed the Clum-Kennedy Park.

Historical plaques in the gardens honor Bertha, Helen and Mary Clum, their father Cornelius Clum, and Bertha’s friend and fellow gardener Frank Kennedy.

It should be noted that when the Clum sisters were young girls there were still many open fields, farms and wooded areas in and around Kensington to enjoy and explore without the need for officially designated parks.