Kenwood, formerly known as Lower Hollow or Rensselaer's Mills, dates to the earliest
Dutch settlement in the area now known as New York's
Capital District. In 1618, the Dutch built a fort along a creek that the
native inhabitants called
Tawasentha. This fort replaced a 1614 fort on
Castle Island that had been lost due to an annual
freshet that occurred along the
Hudson River. In 1637,
Albert Bradt built a mill there. From
Norway, Bradt was nicknamed "the
Norman", and the Tawasentha was renamed Normans
Kill after him. The area known as the Lower Hollow, which later became the hamlet of Kenwood, was part of the
Manor of Rensselaerswyck. The
Patroon Van Rensselaer had various mills built here after the
US Revolutionary War. and the surrounding area also became known as Kenwood. In 1863, the
Albany and Susquehanna Railroad opened from Albany through Kenwood on its way to
Adams Station (Delmar),
Slingerlands and
New Scotland, and eventually to
Binghamton. The latter would be leased and then purchased by the
Delaware and Hudson Railway. It was bought out by the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) in 1990. In 2000, CP had concerns about the safety of the bridge at Kenwood; soon after that, it abandoned the entire line from Kenwood to
Voorheesville. In 1870, the city of Albany annexed a portion of Kenwood (including the first mile of the turnpike, the toll-gate, and the Rathbone estate). The city was sued (
Harriet M. Elmendorf v. The City of Albany) over its right to lay sidewalks along the turnpike (technically private property and not a city road). One issue of the lawsuit was whether the city had authority to levy an assessment upon property in order to cover the cost of the sidewalk, considered an improvement to the private property of the turnpike. In 1886, the hamlet (which included land on both sides of the Normans Kill) included 16 residences, a schoolhouse, a store, a blacksmith, a
Baptist church, and 36 families, with a total of 150 persons. The Bethlehem School District Number 12 school house was on the north bank, and therefore was annexed to Albany; the land south of the creek became part of Bethlehem School District Number 7. In 1916, Southern Boulevard (
US Route 9W), to the northwest of Kenwood, was constructed as a highway to connect
Delaware Avenue in Albany to the turnpike at Corning Hill Road in Bethlehem, thereby bypassing Kenwood. In the early 1930s, South Pearl Street was built along a new path; it was designated as
New York State Route 32. Because of the new road, much of the original turnpike route through Kenwood was abandoned. Roads on the Bethlehem side ended at the Normans Kill. As of February 2020, Kenwood is no longer recognized as a hamlet within the Town of Bethlehem.
Kenwood Academy In 1859, the Female Academy of the Sacred Heart (a
Catholic institution) bought the Rathbone estate and related structures, along with of land. In 1867, it tore down the mansion, but reused its materials in the construction of a new church on the property. School buildings were also constructed. President-elect
Grover Cleveland visited the campus in 1884. The Doane Stuart School moved away from the Kenwood campus to a new campus in Rensselaer, New York in 2009. Following the departure of The Doane Stuart School, the former Kenwood Academy campus, consisting of , was listed for sale in 2009. In 2010, the Preservation League of New York State declared the campus to be one of its "Seven to Save" endangered historic sites for that year. The property was sold on August 21, 2017 for the sum of $3 million. The purchaser of the property stated that he intended to turn the property into a condominium complex. The project was not completed, and the property was later foreclosed upon. On March 23, 2023, the Kenwood Academy building burned almost completely to the ground. Speaking about the Kenwood Academy fire, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said, "'We lost a treasure here and it’s challenging, it’s frustrating'". The building was later demolished. ==Famous residents==