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. In 1804, the Albany and Bethlehem Turnpike Company was organized by the state of New York to construct a turnpike road from Albany at South Pearl Street through Lower Hollow, after which the turnpike split with an upper fork to Babcocks Corners and a lower fork to The Abbey. Robert Van Rensselaer lived in a house on the turnpike near the bridge that carried the road over the Normans Kill. Businessman Joel Rathbone bought a densely wooded area and built a grand Gothic mansion in 1841 for his retirement. He named his estate "Kenwood" in honor of a place in his native Scotland, 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, Slingerlands and New Scotland, and eventually to Binghamton. At Kenwood was the Kenwood Junction, the meeting place of the West Shore Railroad and the Albany and Susquehanna. The latter would be leased and then purchased by the Delaware and Hudson Railway. It was bought out by the Canadian Pacific Railway 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. The city was sued over its right to lay sidewalks along the turnpike. 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 included 16 residences, a schoolhouse, a store, a blacksmith, a Baptist church, and 36 families, with a total of 150 persons. In 1910, the City of Albany annexed the portion of the hamlet of Kenwood lying to the north of the Normans Kill that it had not previously annexed in 1870. Albany annexed much of the land in Bethlehem north of the Normans Kill, thereby making that creek a natural border between the two municipalities. 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, 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 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 school changed its name to the Kenwood Academy. In 1975, the Kenwood Academy merged with the EpiscopalSt Agnes School; the new institution--which continued to operate on the Kenwood campus for several decades--was named the Doane Stuart School. 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.
