 Originally part of Burrell (and later Lower Burrell) Township, the city of New Kensington was founded in 1891.In 1890, the Burrell Improvement Company considered the advantages of the level land south of its home in Lower Burrell, and deemed it a prime location for a city and named the area "Kensington"; this was later changed to "New Kensington" for postal reasons, to avoid confusion with the Philadelphia neighborhood of the same name.In an attempt to make New Kensington comparable to Pittsburgh, the streets were named with numbers.