Is "Kent" a Real DC Neighborhood? Where is Kent and can you call it a D.C. neighborhood

By  RUTH SAMUELSON

Updated 5:16 PM EDT, Tue, Nov 25, 2008

Related Topics: Kent | Paul Frazer | Tina Alster

9 Comments   Post a comment Post a Comment

 

From the Washington City Paper blog Housing Complex

Could these chairs be situated in “Kent”?

This item in Washingtonian magazine’s latest roundup of luxury home sales caught my eye:

“Dermatologist Tina Alster and her husband, Paul Frazer, sold a five-bedroom, seven-bath stucco house in Kent for $3.8 million. The house has a wine cellar and five fireplaces. A former Canadian diplomat, Frazer is a senior adviser for mCapitol Management, a government-relations firm.”

Alster, Frazer—best of luck. I have no issue to take up with either of you. What made me do a double take was “Kent.” Never heard of it before! With a price tag like that, I immediately ruled out some random exurb, unless Alster and Frazer bought the house and the entire town along with it. Could Kent be a section of McLean? Potomac? Perhaps a swath of land once part of Jack Kent Cooke’s kingdom, and thus renamed (sort of like Dolly Parton and Dollyville, her amusement park)?

Nope, nope and nope. The blurb is filed under D.C., not Maryland or Virginia. I consulted the Washington City Paper’s Hoods & Services Guide, the ultimate authority on D.C. neighborhoods. Nada.

To our two in-house neighborhood experts, I then inquired “Ever heard of Kent?” Responses weren’t exactly meaty.

On first googling, here’s what I’ve retrieved: a sparse description of Kent as an area in upper Northwest. If any Kentians want to chime in, please do so either below or at rsamuelson@washingtoncitypaper.com (preferably both).

We’ll get to the bottom of this folks.

Copyright Washington City Paper

Comments (9)

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  • Kent, D.C. Wednesday, Nov 26 at 4:23 PM FLAG COMMENT Kent is one of the official neighborhoods used by the D.C. government. Go to the Real Property Assessment Page on the D.C. website. Click on the drop-down box for Neighborhoods. There are 964 houses in Kent.
  • Tera Wednesday, Nov 26 at 11:21 AM FLAG COMMENT Its "Dollywood", not "Dollyville". She must have had her "in-house experts" do her fact-checking on that as well. Very professional. And yes, I've heard of Kent.
  • Toddrico Wednesday, Nov 26 at 6:19 AM FLAG COMMENT It's Dollywood Daggonit...
  • Alvin Tuesday, Nov 25 at 11:20 PM FLAG COMMENT I could see the whole, "I've never heard of that neighborhood!" schtick really taking off for Ms. Samuelson. It could be a regular column! Next week: "What's this 'Tenley Town' you speak of?" Or how about: "C'mon! 'Palisades'? You must have made that up!". I miss the old NBC4 site; sure, the interns wrote the stories, but at least they were newsworthy.
  • DC Tuesday, Nov 25 at 10:40 PM FLAG COMMENT Is this a joke? Your idea of reporting is to a query "two in-house neighborhood experts" and Google? News 4 should be embarrassed to have such a story on its Web site. Next, why don't you do an expose on whether Chevy Chase is named after the actor or vice a versa.

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