Kenwood is located on the
Rancho Los Guilicos Mexican land grant. In 1887, the Sonoma Land & Improvement Company, which owned the property on which the town now sits, laid out lots in anticipation of the railroad which would arrive the following year. The infant community tried on many names: Rohrerville, for one of the owners of the land company; Los Guilicos, and then South Los Guilicos, for the Mexican land grant.
South Los Guilicos Depot on the
Santa Rosa and Carquinez Railroad opened in 1887. The First Congregational Church of Los Guilicos was built in 1888. It was relocated from the corner of Los Guilicos and Laurel to its present site in 1893. The
parsonage was used for the Kenwood School until construction was completed in 1960. The original name of the church was changed first to Los Guilicos Congregational Church and then to its current name Kenwood Community Church. In 1981, the church was designated Historic Landmark 82 by the County of Sonoma. A number of townspeople were unhappy, complaining that "Guilicos" was hard to pronounce. Around 1895 a vote was taken to change the name again. One story says that Kenwood won because many of the settlers had come from
Kenwood,
Illinois. Another traces the choice to the fact that many landowners in the area were from old
English families and so were familiar with
London's Kenwood House. It is possible that both stories are true, and the name's permanence stemmed from its acceptability to different groups. Some notable people had ranches in the area, including mining, railroad, newspaper and banking magnate,
Thomas Kearns, who was also a U.S. Senator from Utah. It is reported that he entertained President
Theodore Roosevelt there at the Kearns Ranch, also known as the
William Hood House. The World Pillow Fight Championships originated in Kenwood in the 1970s. Two local community groups held charitable functions to help raise funds that would make improvements to the town. One of these charitable functions was the World Pillow Fighting Championships. A steel pole was made to span the Los Guilicos Spring Creek, which was then filled with mud and the Pillow Fights became an annual event. The last World Pillow Fight Championships in Kenwood were held in Plaza Park in 2006, and subsequent events have been held around the United States. A return to Sonoma County is planned for 2019. Ray Flugger founded Flowmaster, Inc. in 1983 while working out of a small barn in Kenwood. ==Demographics==