Kensington is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and former

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Oakland County Oakland County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the Metro Detroit, metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 Census, its population was 1, ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. It is located within Lyon Township. Settled in 1831, Kensington suffered population loss when the railroad diverted the Detroit to Lansing traffic southward to South Lyon. The later building of

I-96 Interstate 96 (I-96) is an east–west Interstate Highway that runs for approximately entirely within the Lower Peninsula of the US state of Michigan. The western terminus is at an interchange with US Highway 31 (US 31) and Bu ...

and the

Kensington Metropark Kensington Metropark is a unit of the Huron–Clinton Metroparks system located between Milford and South Lyon, Michigan, USA. The park covers 4,543 acres (18.13 km2). It has wooded hilly terrain and surrounds Kent Lake (a dammed section of ...

in the 1950s caused the community to disappear.Hagman, Arthur A., ed. ''Oakland County Book of History''. 1970. p. 34.

History

Kensington was settled in 1831 and platted in 1836. On June 9, 1834 a U.S. Post Office opened with the name of Lyon on Kent Lake Road between Grand River Avenue and Silver Lake Road (). On September 5, 1836, the Lyon Post Office was renamed Kensington.
GNIS in Google Maps
Citation: Ellis, David M. Michigan Postal History, The Post Offices 1805-1986. 12-Dec-1993. By 1854 it had over 300 residents. With the building of the Detroit, Lansing and Lake Michigan Railroad in 1871 it suffered a significant loss of population that was further accelerated by the building of the

Michigan Air Line Railroad The Michigan Air Line Railroad was a railroad across southern Michigan, connecting the Canada Southern Railway to Chicago, Illinois. Only part of the line was built before the company that first built it folded, and it was split between the Mic ...

in 1882 that went through New Hudson. On July 31, 1902, the Kensington Post Office was closed. By 1905 there were only four families left in the village. Most of its buildings were leveled when Kensington Metropark and I-96 (then US-16) were built in the 1950s.

External links

Michigan’s Ghost Towns – Kensington Village

Sources

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Michigan Unincorporated communities in Oakland County, Michigan Metro Detroit Populated places established in 1836 1836 establishments in Michigan Territory Former villages in Michigan