Evening star., 1950-11-13
By George Kennedy

The assassination of the Arch
duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo
on June %. 1914, started a train
of events that eliminated in an
explosion of an atomic bomb over
Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. and a
realization that the world had
entered the atomic age.
But in Kensington, Md. out at
the end Of Connecticut avenue,
time seems to have stood still.
Almost all the houses in the cen
ter of the village were built be-
fore World War I and they have
not suffered the loss of their big
front porches through attempts at
modernization.
Children and dogs at play run
through the swirling leaves. They
have little to fear for it is almost
impossible for the motorist to
drive fast through Kensington's
winding side streets.
There are big back yards with
carriage houses and hay lofts, ideal
for revivals of such dramas as
the kidnapping of Billy Whitla or
the assassination of Lincoln or
rescues by Hopalong Cassidy or
the shootings in front of Blair
House.
There are cellar doors to slide
down, for most of the houses are
gabled, three-story frame struc-
lures with white weatherboard and
green blinds which stand high
on the masonry of large base
ments.
Houses Have Dining Rooms.
They are houses with dining
rooms and big Kitchens. vestibules
and reception rooms as well as
lparlors- rs-plenty OF room for books.
They. are houses that probably
contained the Morris chair and
the new mission furniture with
limp suede leather bound copies
of James Whitcomb Riley's poems
illustrated by Howard Chandler
Christy, or Ebert Hubbard's
Little Journeys to the Homes of
Famous People" left ostentatiously
on the table.
They are houses that had ORR
entail rugs and Oil paintings, per-
haps the copy mother made of
a Barbizon landscape and per-
haps something junior was able
to contribute by hanging his panel
of white pine charred with one
of the most beautiful of the Glib
son girl drawings, a product Of
his new wood-burning set.
One can see the upright plano
against the wall, the sheet music
on the rack, the daughter at the
keyboard and young men looking
over her shoulder at the words
as they sang Blanche Rings new
vaudeville hit, Rings on My Fin
gers and Bells on My Toes'' end
ing up with lusty BE Mistress
Mumbo Jumbo Jijiboo Jay,
O'Shea!"
Kensington is no place for the
lover of the relics of the Co.
lonial, for those who go into ecs-
tacy about sunburst over a door
or the fine proportions of the
brick buildings of the Federal pc
riod. It's no Georgetown. All
the houses were built since 1890.
People who had no idea they
wanted an old house, on driving
through Kensington, suddenly find
themselves attacked by homesick-
ness. They want their children
to experience the happy childhood
OF the days of the St. Nicholas
Magazine and the Youths Com
panion.
No Houses for Sale.
They drive about Kensington
enthusiastically selling the place
to themselves as they encounter
more interesting houses at every
turn. They see houses surrounded
by white picket fences, fences that
look as though they ought to be
there-not constructed in a Hol-
lywood set for the boy and girl
scene at the gate.
But they do not see any for
sale signs. This infuriates them
and they march right up to front
doors, ring the bells and demand
to know why the residents are
not selling. One Kensington
woman who has an attractive
house on a Connecticut avenue
corner is of the opinion that this
is the only drawback to Kensing-
ton life.
Kensington has no movie the
ater. Residents are divided in
their opinion as to whether that
is an advantage or disadvantage.
Some years ago Sidney Lust ac-
quired the corner where Lincoln
avenue goes over the Baltimore
& Ohio tracks and put up sign
announcing it was the site of a
new theater and modern shopping
center. But later he selected Viers
Mill Village, between Kensington
and Wheaton. for the theater.
The lack of commercial amuse-
ment has stimulated an amazing
number of community activities
in this little village, which has
only 1,700 population within its
corporate limits. There are two
women's clubs. One is the Wom-
ans Club of Kensington, limited
to 80 members. In the old days
the wives Of ministers, physicians