A Charles Goodman-designed community of 76 mid-century modern homes in a wooded valley just north of Kensington — a National Register Historic District where Yoshino cherry trees arch over three quiet streets and window walls open onto original forest.
Rock Creek Woods is one of the DC area’s genuine architectural treasures: a self-contained community of 76 mid-century modern homes designed by Charles M. Goodman — the architect behind Hollin Hills — and built between 1958 and 1961 by merchant builders Herschel and Marvin Blumberg of the Bancroft Construction Company.
The neighborhood sits about a mile north of Kensington, tucked into a wooded valley between two creeks just west of Connecticut Avenue. The mailing address says Silver Spring — a quirk of postal history, not geography — but ask anyone who lives here and they’ll tell you: this is North Kensington.
What makes Rock Creek Woods different from the loose collections of postwar contemporaries scattered across Montgomery County is cohesion. Every house here is a Goodman design. Every lot was sited under Goodman’s supervision to save the old-growth trees and work with the sloping terrain. The original street layout, lot configurations, and sidewalks remain unaltered more than sixty years later — which is exactly why the entire neighborhood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
If you’ve toured Hollin Hills and wished there were something like it on the Maryland side, this is it — smaller, quieter, and every bit as architecturally serious.
Rock Creek Woods was developed as Section 21 of Rock Creek Palisades, a wooded parcel bounded by Connecticut Avenue on the east, St. Joseph’s Branch (a Rock Creek tributary) on the west, and St. James Run to the south. The Blumberg brothers — Herschel and Marvin, who later developed New Town Center in Hyattsville — hired Charles M. Goodman Associates to design the houses and plan the community, and construction ran from 1958 to 1961.
The plan is simple and brilliant: three streets forming a large, self-contained cul-de-sac. Two curving dead-end streets, Spruell Drive and Rickover Road, hug the contours of the land and are linked by Ingersol Drive, which loops between them. There is no through traffic — none — and the street names, like others in Rock Creek Palisades, honor World War II admirals.
One item that deserves a pause: the original Goodman working drawings for these houses are cataloged and digitized in the Charles M. Goodman Archives at the Library of Congress — funded by the residents themselves. If you buy here, the blueprints for your house may be a free download away.
Goodman designed four models for Rock Creek Woods — the BC-1D “Starview,” the BC-2U “Brookview,” the BC-3U “Woodview,” and the three-level BC-4D — though his individualized siting makes the neighborhood read as far more varied.
Rock Creek Woods sits at the end of a Connecticut Avenue service road about a mile north of Old Town Kensington. You’re minutes from Kensington’s antique row, farmers market, and MARC rail station, with Wheaton and Grosvenor-Strathmore Metro stations (Red Line) both a short drive away. Connecticut Avenue puts you on a straight run south toward Chevy Chase and the District, and the Beltway and I-270 are close.
But the daily texture of life here is defined by the landscape. St. Joseph’s Branch and St. James Run frame the neighborhood, connecting it to the Rock Creek stream valley parkland and its trail network. Deer, foxes, owls, and hawks are regulars — the civic association’s website reads more like a nature journal than an HOA newsletter.
And then there are the cherry trees. In 1959, two original owners convinced the county to plant Yoshino cherries instead of standard shade trees along the streets. The civic association has replanted generations of them since — more than 100 Yoshinos now line the three streets, forming a canopy that turns the whole neighborhood pink for a couple of weeks every spring. It’s the Tidal Basin experience without the tour buses.
The neighborhood is served by Montgomery County Public Schools. MCPS boundaries change periodically, so always verify your specific address with the MCPS boundary tool before you buy.
Rock Creek Woods was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 19, 2004, through the efforts of a resident committee. It qualified under Criteria A and C — both for what it represents (high-quality, affordable merchant-built Contemporary housing of the postwar suburban expansion) and for how it was designed (Goodman’s integration of architecture and landscape). Practically, that means three things.
No design-review handcuffs. National Register listing is honorific at the federal level — it does not, by itself, impose county design review or restrict what you can do to your home. (Whether the neighborhood carries any separate Montgomery County Master Plan designation — which is what triggers Historic Area Work Permits and the county’s own historic tax credit — should be confirmed with Montgomery Planning.)
A real renovation incentive. Because of the National Register listing, homeowners here can pursue Maryland’s Homeowner Historic Revitalization Tax Credit — a 20% state income tax credit for pre-approved rehabilitation work that maintains the integrity of the original Goodman design. The neighborhood’s own example: replacement windows can effectively cost 20% less if you keep the original frame-to-glass ratio. Work must be approved by the Maryland Historical Trust before you start, so plan the paperwork into your renovation timeline.
Integrity that protects value. The houses still look remarkably close to how they did in 1961, and the community actively maintains Goodman’s Contemporary idiom. In the MCM market, that documented, district-wide integrity is worth real money at resale.
The architecture purist. If provenance matters to you — a named architect, original drawings at the Library of Congress, a National Register listing — this is one of a handful of Maryland neighborhoods that delivers all three. The Hollin Hills admirer on the Maryland side. Same architect, same design language, same woods-first siting philosophy — closer to NIH, Walter Reed, downtown Kensington, and the Red Line.
The renovator who wants a roadmap. Between the digitized Goodman drawings and the 20% state tax credit for design-faithful work, few neighborhoods make it easier to renovate well. Anyone who wants real community. This is a 76-home cul-de-sac with a Labor Day picnic tradition, an active civic association, and no through traffic. Neighbors funded an archive project together. That tells you most of what you need to know.
Values vary with model, lot, condition, and the quality of updates — original-condition homes and thoughtfully renovated ones are different markets here. Talk to me about what’s realistic before you fall in love with a listing photo.
Rock Creek Woods homes don’t come up often — 76 houses, and owners tend to stay. If you want to be ready when one does, or you own here and want a specialist who can tell the Starview story properly, let’s talk.