Allen, Texas

Everything Allen is known for

1 song mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Allen

Songs About Allen

Jim Murphy
Mark David Manders
7%
"The first job that we pulled was at the Allen station, next job we pulled was in Mesquite"

Artists From Allen

A
August Ponthier
folk

Rivers & Roads in Song near Allen

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Allen.

Interstate 45 8 songs Trinity River 11 songs Interstate 20 13 songs Interstate 35 43 songs Sulphur River 2 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Allen

Texas's First Train Robbery RoadyGoat

Right here in Allen, on February 22, 1878, Texas saw its first-ever successful train robbery. The man behind it was the notorious outlaw Sam Bass. Bass and his gang had been robbing stagecoaches, but they decided to aim for a bigger prize. They knew the schedule for the Houston and Texas Central Railway. As the southbound train stopped at the Allen station that evening, the gang made their move. One man held a pistol on the engineer while the others forced the express safe open. The haul wasn't as big as they'd hoped—about twelve hundred and eighty dollars, mostly in silver coins—but the event sent shockwaves across the state. It touched off three more robberies within twenty miles of Dallas in the next fifty days, and it cemented Sam Bass's reputation as a bold and dangerous figure. The original depot is long gone, but as you cross the tracks in the old part of town, you're passing through the scene of a legendary moment in Texas outlaw history.

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The $60 Million Football Palace RoadyGoat

If you want to understand modern Allen, you have to understand Eagle Stadium. Opened in 2012, this isn't just a high school football field; it's an 18,000-seat monument to the power of Texas high school football. The stadium, which cost an astonishing $60 million to build, features a massive video screen, a multi-level press box, and corporate-style suites. It was, and remains, a symbol of Allen's civic pride and its commitment to its single, unified high school and its powerhouse football program. The stadium also became a symbol of controversy when it was forced to close for more than a year for multi-million dollar repairs due to extensive cracking in the concrete. But even that saga—the ambition, the expense, the failure, and the fix—is part of the story. It’s the ultimate expression of a community built around Friday night lights.

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The Science of a Stadium Failure RoadyGoat

Allen’s Eagle Stadium is a Texas-sized landmark, but its most fascinating story is one of structural engineering and materials science. Just two years after its celebrated $60 million opening, the stadium was shut down. The reason? Widespread, dangerous cracks in the concrete of the main concourse level. An investigation found multiple issues. The massive, elevated concourse was designed with long, unsupported spans, which put immense stress on the concrete. Engineers discovered that in many areas, the structure wasn't built with enough reinforcement to handle the tension, and the concrete itself may not have cured properly to reach its designed strength. The result was a lesson in physics: under the simple force of its own weight, the structure was beginning to fail. The fix required a $10 million effort to add dozens of new support columns and reinforce the existing structure. The stadium stands today not just as a sports venue, but as a very public, very expensive case study in getting engineering right.

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Kyler Murray at Allen High School

Kyler Murray, Allen HS class of 2015 (senior season fall 2014). 42-0 as a starter; never lost a game he started. Three straight Texas 5A state titles (2012, 2013, 2014). 2014-15 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year; first player named Mr. Texas Football twice. Senior 2014: 4,713 pass yds, 54 pass TD, 8 INT; 1,485 rush yds, 25 rush TD. Eagle Stadium: ~$60M, 18,000 seats, closed Feb 2014-June 2015 for concrete repairs. Sources: Wikipedia, PRNewswire (Gatorade), FOX Sports, texashsfootball.com, Eagle Stadium Wikipedia.

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Allen

1878

Fertile land and plentiful water drew settlers to this area from as early as the 1840s. This part of Collin County was well populated by 1876 when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad built a water supply stop on Cottonwood Creek near this site. The railroad stop and newly created town lots established a center of commerce for local farmers and their families and provided better equipment and broader markets for agricultural production. The surrounding open prairie soon was developed into small family farms. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad filed documents to create the town of Allen from the James L. Read survey in 1876. The village was named for Ebenezer Allen, a former Republic and State of Texas attorney general and a founder of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. A dry goods store, barber shop, and school soon opened in the rapidly growing town. Sam Bass reportedly led an outlaw gang that robbed the Allen Depot on February 22, 1878. This was probably the first successful train robbery in Texas. By 1884 the town of Allen had three churches, a flour mill, and a population of 350. In 1908 the Texas Traction Company built an electric railway through town, calling it the Interurban. The citizenry numbered 550 by 1915. Allen was incorporated in 1953 with 400 residents. Electric railway service ended in 1948 but railway freight service continued. Strong economic growth in the Dallas-Fort Worth area helped the town's population grow to include more than 19,000 citizens in the 1990s. (1998)

Historical Marker →

Allen, TX

1870

Allen is on U.S. Highway 75 eight miles southwest of McKinney in southwestern Collin County. The town was established in 1870 by a purchasing agent for the Houston and Texas Central Railway and named in 1872 for Ebenezer Allen , former attorney general of Texas and a promoter of the railroad. In 1876 a post office opened there. Four years later Denton outlaw Sam Bass supposedly committed the first train robbery in the state at Allen. By 1884 Allen had a population estimated at 350, three churches, a school, a chair factory, and a flour mill. In 1908 the Texas Traction Company ( see TEXAS ELECTRIC RAILWAY ) built an electric railway through the town. The population had increased to 550 by 1915. In the mid-1940s the number of residents declined to 400, and in 1948 electric interurban service was discontinued. Beginning in the late 1960s, however, Allen's population grew rapidly. Between 1970 and 1980 the number of residents jumped from 1,940 to 8,314. This increase was influenced by the economic growth of Dallas and nearby Plano and the construction of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport . In 1990 Allen had a population of 18,309 and was the third largest town in Collin County. In 2000 the town's population had grown to 43,554.

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Allen Water Station

1848

On March 11, 1848, Ebenezer Allen, former Republic of Texas Attorney General, obtained a charter for the Galveston and Red River Railway. Track construction began in early 1856, and the company was renamed Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway Company in September of that same year. Construction on the line began in Houston and reached Corsicana in 1871, Dallas in 1872 and Denison in 1873 where the connection was made with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad to form the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the east, allowing grain, cotton and cattle to reach its destination overnight. In 1874, the H&TC Railway acquired land from J.W. Franklin in Collin County to construct a stone dam across Cottonwood Creek and a water station to provide water for its steam locomotives. The water station included a pump house, an elevated water storage tank, a privy for the railroad workers who operated the water station and other facilities. The workers were Americans and immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland. H&TC Railway Company Surveyor Theodore Kosse created the town of Allen in 1876 by platting the James Reed survey. The station and town established a center for commerce for local farmers and provided better equipment and broader markets for agricultural production. The Allen Water Station remained in operation until diesel engines replaced steam engines in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The station is recorded as a State Antiquities Landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The 1874 stone dam and foundations for the water tower and pump house, still visible today, highlight the important role that the H&TC Railroad played in late 19th century commerce, transportation and settlement.

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First Methodist Church of Allen

1847

Methodists were among the earliest settlers in Collin County. A group of thirteen pioneers met at Joseph Russell’s log cabin close to present-day Allen on November 15, 1847 and organized a church. Russell’s home was located south of Rowlett Creek near present-day Jupiter Road. The church services became part of the far-reaching Dallas circuit and were presided over by multiple traveling ministers. The growing congregation moved three miles to the west and conducted meetings at the Spring Creek School when it was built in 1857. However, when the railroad came through in 1876, the church was moved several miles away to Plano. The community, which the church had served, was organized as Allen in 1876. Area Methodists were eager to establish a church closer to their community. Early meetings were most likely held in the Allen Schoolhouse, but soon after, the Baptists opened their church doors to let the Methodists worship independently. The first known Allen pastor was Methodist camp preacher and revivalist Rev. George S. Gatewood, who held camp meetings under a brush arbor at Pegues Springs, southeast of town. The Methodist Church purchased a parcel of land in 1884, but it is unclear if a church was built on this site. A second plot they bought was on the corner of S. Allen Dr. And McDermott Rd., and a one-room church house was built there in 1902. Damaged in the 1910s, a new building was constructed between 1917-19, and was razed in 1965. The current building on S. Greenville Ave. was built in 1966. The first parsonage, which is still standing, was built on Butler Street and used until 1960. A notable member of the congregation was Dr. Malcom O. Perry II, one of the surgeons who attended President John F. Kennedy at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

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Leach, John Sayles

1916

John Sayles Leach, president of Texaco, Incorporated, was born in Allen, Texas, on September 30, 1891. After the death of his parents he was raised on his grandfather's farm. He attended Baylor University, where he played football and basketball and graduated in 1915. He joined the Dallas sales department of the Texas Company, the forerunner of Texaco , on September 25, 1916. He then worked as a traveling salesman based in Waco. In 1919 he was transferred to Wichita Falls, where, after the opening of the Burkburnett oilfield, he established a reputation as one of the few salesmen willing to operate in the field among the roughnecks. He returned to the sales department in Dallas in 1924 and moved to Houston in 1927 to become assistant manager of sales for Texaco's southern territory. In 1929 he became manager, a position he retained until 1938. His success as an administrator of sales for the company's southern territory resulted in Leach's promotion to vice president of Texaco in 1938. He held this post until 1949, when he became director of the company and moved from Houston to the Texaco office in New York. He became executive vice president in 1950 and two years later was elected president. In 1953 he became chairman and chief executive officer. During his tenure as chairman Leach saw Texaco become a leading international oil corporation; the Houston Chronicle labeled him "one of the authentic giants of the oil industry." In 1956 Leach reached the mandatory retirement age of sixty-five and resigned the chairmanship of Texaco, though he remained an officer of the company. In retirement he returned to Houston, where he was active in the city's Community Chest and a member of the board of directors of Texas Commerce Bank and the Houston Lighting and Power Company. He was also a trustee of Rice University and Baylor University, which awarded him an honorary LL.D. in 1953. Among the awards Leach most cherished was the Texas Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association Distinguished Service Award, which he received in 1950. He was married to Daisy Randolph and fathered two daughters. He suffered a heart attack and died in Houston on March 16, 1964. He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston.

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Things to Do in Allen

historical 23.7 mi away
The Sixth Floor Museum

Where Lee Harvey Oswald fired from. The JFK assassination site at Dealey Plaza.
historical 23.7 mi away
Dealey Plaza

On November 22 1963 President John F Kennedy rode through Dealey Plaza in an open Lincoln convertible and was shot from the sixth floor window of the Texas…
quirky 22.7 mi away
Big Tex at the State Fair

A fifty-five-foot cowboy named Big Tex has welcomed visitors to the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park Dallas every fall since 1952. He booms howdy folks over a…
quirky 3.8 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The Ewing family TV mansion from the Dallas soap opera sits on two hundred acres in Parker Texas and is open for tours every day. JRs bedroom is there. The…
historical 7.2 mi away
Southfork Ranch

The filming location of TV's Dallas. JR Ewing lived here.
spooky 19.8 mi away
Lady of White Rock Lake

Since the 1930s drivers along White Rock Lake report picking up a soaking-wet woman in a white dress. She asks for a ride home then vanishes leaving the seat…
food 22.9 mi away
Pecan Lodge

Dallas' best BBQ. The beef rib alone is worth the drive.

Sports in Allen

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Football · 2017

Allen — 2017 UIL 6A Division 1 Football State Champions

Most recent: 35-33 over Austin Lake Travis · 2017 6A Division 1 final

Allen High School, a Class 6A football powerhouse in Allen, Texas, consistently fields competitive teams. The Eagles have established a strong tradition within the state's highest classification, reflecting the dedication and spirit found in this North Texas community. Their program continues to be a point of pride, drawing enthusiastic support from across the city.

The Eagles' commitment to excellence has resulted in significant achievements on the field. The community celebrates the program's success, which includes multiple state titles. These victories are a testament to the hard work and competitive drive that define Allen High School football.

State titles
2017
Most recent
2017, 35-33
Class
6A
The moment

One memorable moment in Allen High School football history was their 2017 6A Division 1 state championship victory, where they defeated Austin Lake Travis 35-33.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)
🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 6A · Boys Basketball · 2018

Allen — 2018 UIL 6A Boys Basketball State Champions

Most recent: 2018 6A

Allen High School, a Class 6A powerhouse in the heart of Texas, has a proud tradition on the basketball court. The Eagles boys' basketball program has soared to the pinnacle of state competition, bringing home a UIL State Championship title.

The community rallies around its teams, and the success of Allen High School basketball is a point of considerable local pride. This achievement reflects the dedication fostered within the program, echoing through the gyms and across the North Texas landscape.

State titles
2018
Most recent
2018
Class
6A
The moment

The Allen Eagles boys' basketball team claimed the 6A State Championship in 2018.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Allen

923 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the nearest 200 are listed here — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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