• Blackstone Library (1902)
• Kenwood Historic District
• North Kenwood Historic District
• Illinois Central/Metra Electric corridor

Kenwood takes its name from Dr. John Asa Kennicott, a dentist who purchased land near the Illinois Central Railroad tracks at 48th Street in 1856 and named his new home after his family's ancestral estate, Kennicott Wood, in Scotland. Wealthy Chicagoans seeking respite from the crowded city followed him, and when the Illinois Central built a small depot near 47th Street, the railroad named the station Kenwood too. The area, part of Hyde Park Township, was annexed to Chicago in 1889.

By the turn of the century, Kenwood had become one of the city's most exclusive addresses, its streets lined with mansions built for industrialists like meatpacker Gustavus Swift and Sears president Julius Rosenwald. The Blackstone Library, opened in 1902 as Chicago Public Library's first branch, still serves the community, and two Chicago Landmark districts, Kenwood and North Kenwood, preserve the neighborhood's architectural legacy today, alongside its more recent distinction as the longtime home of Barack and Michelle Obama.

MY-NHD's Kenwood collection is built for a neighborhood a single dentist's homesick namesake turned into one of the grandest addresses on the South Side.