Map of Kemp Mill CDP

Kemp Mill is a census-designated place and an unincorporated census area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 13,378 at the 2020 census.

Kemp Mill census area consists of the separate communities of Kemp Mill Estates and Kemp Mill Farms.

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Kemp Mill location map. Where is Kemp Mill CDP?

History

Kemp Mill was first developed in the 1950s as an exclusively white community. The neighborhood was among several communities in Montgomery County’s Silver Spring area that were built by Jewish real estate developers catering to Jews moving to the suburbs from Washington, D.C. The majority of residences in Kemp Mill are single family homes dating to the 1950s, although newer homes were built in the 1980s and 1990s on Yeatman, Bromley, and Kersey roads. Kemp Mill Estates was developed by Jack Kay and Harold Greenberg of the Kay Construction Company, the son and son-in-law of real estate developer Abraham S. Kay. As with other neighborhoods in Silver Spring, racially restrictive covenants were used in Kemp Mill to exclude African-Americans prior to the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.

By the 1970s, Kemp Mill was majority white but had begun to racially integrate. In the late 1970s, the average price of a home in Kemp Mill was between $85,000 and $90,000. In 1978, a black DC school official living in Kemp Mill was the target of a hate crime when the N-word and “KKK” were painted on her house and her tires were slashed.

In 1989, 25% of the 2,000 families in Kemp Mill were Orthodox Jews.

In September 1989, there was a spate of antisemitic incidents rumored to be due to “skinheads”. Swastikas were painted on several vehicles, 40 cars had their windows shot in with BB guns, and the graffiti “All Jews Must Die Now” was painted on a sidewalk. These antisemitic incidents occurred a few months after a young Asian man was beaten in nearby Sligo Creek Park by a group of youths and young adults shouting anti-Asian racial slurs. A community meeting was held and the local police claimed that “youths” were to blame for the antisemitic incidents and that there were no organized neo-Nazis or skinheads in the region. However, a man living in Kemp Mill had recently been convicted for vandalism of the Kemp Mill Urban Park, an act the police claimed was inspired by the 1988 film Betrayed, which follows the actions of a white supremacist organization.

During the summer of 2020, multiple Black Lives Matter rallies were held at Northwood High School in Kemp Mill to protest against racism and police brutality.

In June 2022, shortly before the Shavuot holiday, antisemitic fliers advertising neo-Nazi websites were placed at several locations in Kemp Mill, including at a bus shelter located in front of the Young Israel Shomrai Emunah synagogue and on an ice chest outside of the Shalom Kosher grocery store. One flier said “Love Your Race” while another flier used an antisemitic slur, denied the Holocaust, and called for genocide.

Kemp Mill Road Map

Kemp Mill city Satellite Map

Geography

As an unincorporated area, Kemp Mill does not have officially defined boundaries. However, Kemp Mill is recognized by the United States Census Bureau as a census-designated place, and by the United States Geological Survey as a populated place located at 39°2′2″N 77°1′28″W / 39.03389°N 77.02444°W / 39.03389; -77.02444 (39.033832, −77.024541).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the neighborhood has a total area of 2.54 square miles (6.2 km), all land.

Kemp Mill is considered by many of its residents, particularly those members of the Orthodox Jewish community, to be part of unincorporated Silver Spring. It is served by the Wheaton Post Office.

See also