Main Street. Main street was formerly named William Street in honour of the 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, William Petty-Fitzmaurice, who was raised in Lixnaw, County Kerry. He inherited the Lansdowne estates at Kenmare in 1761 and became Prime Minister of England twenty years later. The Marquis designed the plans upon which Kenmare developed in the 1770s. Main Street was renamed when the new nationalist ethos of the town asserted itself at the turn of the 20th century. The streetscape contains some fine examples of 18th and 19th century buildings.