Joseph’s Park

As you look behind the house at 10549 St. Paul Street, you will see Joseph’s Park at the corner of Plyers Mill Road and Wheatley Street. This small park at the corner of Wheatley Street, has been owned by the Town of Kensington since 1956. It is an historic landmark of the origins of English settlements in the area. In 1689 surveyors for the Honorable William Joseph selected a “bound oak tree” as a marker for “Joseph’s Park”, one of the first land grants from the Lord Proprietary Charles Calvert. Kensington stands on this tract of land. Stop a moment under one of the shade trees and try to imagine earlier days when Bladensburg Road was an early thoroughfare through this area for commerce traveling to the port of Bladensburg on the Anacostia River.