Allen's Spirit

Downtown

The old dam site, the historical village where my family has attended many different kinds of events, and Bethany Lakes where we frequently interact with our neighbors and diverse community.

The locomotive downtown brings back recollections of the trains that came through town sounding their horn. The pocket meadows of wild flowers brings back memories of driving the white rock roads around town on Sunday afternoons with my father. And, of course the football stadium brings back the real Friday night lights when the town closed down.

The Library is a great landmark as well!

The public library

My first thoughts on this subject would include the old historical dam, which is what officially began our community although you have to go there to appreciate it. After that, the older historical parts of the community which includes the Historical Village on St. Mary Drive, the replicated depot in downtown (with train engine and caboose), the remaining rail lines in Allen, the old original downtown area and beyond that, the open space and creeks (accessible on our extensive hike and bike trails). This represents the hard work of the original/early settlers, as well as earlier leaders in our community as it developed over time, who were committed to making Allen a better, great, community for themselves, but more importantly, for those who followed. To me, it means people did care about where we were headed and they planned to help us reach a trajectory that they could only dream of, as back then, it really was a dream. Today, many of those dreams have come to fruition.

The old Allen Train Depot - dubbed now as the Allen Heritage Center. I appreciate the Allen Heritage Guild and all they are doing to recreate and protect the history that made Allen.

Bethany Lakes Park