The Allen Water Station

Cradle of a Railroad Town's 150-Year Legacy Published ahead of the Allen 150 Sesquicentennial — April 25, 2026

Picture North Texas in the summer of 1874: open prairie, scattered post oak, and a creek called Cottonwood winding south through land that had no town, no post office, and no particular reason to become one. Then the steam engines came.

The Houston & Texas Central Railway was pushing north—Houston to Dallas to Denison, threading the state together mile by dusty mile. And every ten miles or so, those engines needed water. A lot of it. The H&TC's solution at Cottonwood Creek was to build something that has outlasted everything else from that era: a hand-cut stone dam, 69 feet long and 10 feet high, holding back enough water to keep the trains running through the night. Workers from Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland hauled and fitted those blocks, raised a pump house, and anchored an elevated tank on stone piers beside the tracks. In a matter o…

The growth and transformation of Allen

This article originally appeared on sixtybyeighty.jll.com in Feb 2018.

The growth and transformation of Allen Despite the ups and downs of the national economy, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex expands. I find it hard to believe that at the beginning of the tech boom in the 1990s, our job base totaled 2.6 million versus 3.7 million today. At that time, our telecom corridor was rapidly expanding and Legacy was in its toddler years. Those 1.1 million new jobs fueled the expansion and creation of many business hubs. As we look around DFW today, new development continues to flow into established areas to accommodate our growth. Other areas, however, are also emerging as potential new submarkets. One of those is Allen. Currently, Allen and McKinney are included in the broader Richardson – Plano submarket. Although that combination makes sense today, it probably doesn’t in the not too distant future. Of all the next tier suburbs in the path of …

Bid 2017 Farewell With These Fun Festivities

Here are some words from the Allen Convention & Visitors Bureau. What do you think about fun things to do for 2017 NYE celebrations in Allen TX? 2017 is rapidly coming to a close, but we’ve got the scoop on how to make your final moments of the year memorable and kick off the new year on the right notes. Looking to celebrate the New Year with style? Bar Louie’s NYE bash is going to be popping (and not just the bottles, either!) with your favorite hits playing, your beers of choice on tap, and piquant plates being cooked up and dished out to you from 8 PM to 2 AM. Click here for tickets to guarantee a great night. Sports fans can cheer on the Allen Americans on New Year’s Eve as they take on the Wichita Thunder. You’ll be on the edge of your seat as you watch our hometown hockey heroes try to claim their fifth championship at Allen Event Center. Don’t miss out on the action -- score your tickets today! Dance your way into the New Year at Kelly’s at The Villag…

Stacy Rd Fast Food Lane

With the The Village at Allen on one side and The Village at Fairview on the other, Stacy Rd is quite the happening shopping area. Let's not forget Premium Outlets on the west side of Central. These mega-draw retail areas bring thousands of shoppers and with their shopping tasks, they get hungry. To fill this need to feed, in steps the fast food cartel with their various offerings of quite bites and beverages. This is where Fast Food Lane comes in. From the west we have In-N-Out Burgers, Raising Cane's Chicken, Panda Express, Chick-Fil-A, McDonalds, Taco Bell, El Pollo Loco, Whataburger and Jack In The Box. Last, but not least, is Taco Bueno. I have them listed last because they are actually on Greenville Ave, not Stacy Road. Chick-fil-a Chick-fil-a, is open 6 days a week. Sunday is closed for employees to have family time. They have a play area for the kids, convenient drive through, outdoor seating during nice weather and a very courteous staff. They also provide cate…

Allen Eagle Football – Varsity Schedule

Texas UIL State Champions 2008, 2012, 2013, & 2014 Date Opponent Location Time/Result 8/19 Arlington Martin* Eagle Stadium 10:00 a.m. NA 8/26 Hoover, Alabama Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 9/2 Evangel, Louisiana Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 9/9 Coppell Buddy Echols Field, Coppell 7:30 p.m. W 9/16 open open open 9/23 McKinney Boyd Ron Poe Stadium, McKinney 7:30 p.m. W 9/30 Plano West** Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 10/7 Plano Clark Stadium, Plano 7:30 p.m. W 10/14 Denton Guyer Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 10/20 McKinney Ron Poe Stadium, McKinney 7:30 p.m. W 10/28 Plano East Kimbrough Stadium, Plano 7:30 p.m. W 11/4 Wylie*** Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 11/11 Euless Trinity Eagle Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 11/18 Belton Mesquite Memorial Stadium 7:30 p.m. W 11/25 San Angelo Central San Angelo Stadium 4:00 p.m. W 12/3 …

Five Allen High students win University Interscholastic League with The Man Fairy

Connor Reiersgord, Reggie Robinson, Andrew Truong, Daniel McPartland and Marco Diaz of Allen High School are champions in field of animation. The Man Fairy is a two-minute short animation about an uber masculine as well as an apathetic tooth fairy which earned them the title Division II animation champions in the UIL Young Filmmakers Festival. The five student filmmakers were invited and given honor on stage. They were given the award for Division II state championship. Most of the competing filmmaker’s entries were darker and has deeper stories, but the 5 student champions said that their The Main Fairy story has lighthearted nature which the judges preferred. Truong said, “One thing that gave us an edge is a lot of people went for the dark, deep story.” “Yeah, everyone loves humor,” added Reiersgord. The short was submitted by the group just 2 hours before midnight and the deadline.