Allen

History

Before American settlement, the area was home to the Caddo, Comanche and other Indigenous peoples. Collin County was first settled between 1840 and 1860. A 1998 Texas Historical Commission marker says fertile land and plentiful water drew settlers to the Allen area from the 1840s. It also says the area was well populated by 1876, when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad built a water supply stop on Cottonwood Creek. A railroad purchasing agent established the town in 1870, and it was named Allen in 1872. A post office opened in 1876. The Handbook of Texas says Bass "supposedly committed the first train robbery in the state" at Allen. Collin County describes it as one of the first train robberies in Texas. The district closed the stadium in February 2014 after cracks were found in its concourse. An engineering firm hired by the district later found defects that were "primarily engineering failures." The architect, PBK Architects, and the builder, Pogue Construction, paid for repairs costing more than $10 million. The stadium reopened for graduation in June 2015, and football returned there in August 2015. On May 6, 2023, a gunman opened fire at Allen Premium Outlets, killing eight people and injuring seven others. An Allen police officer who had been nearby on an unrelated call shot and killed the gunman, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia of Dallas. According to researchers and investigators, Garcia had expressed white supremacist and neo-Nazi views, but his specific motive was not established. The outlet center reopened in June 2023. A permanent stainless-steel memorial by Placzek Studios was also unveiled at the outlet center. It includes eight wind chimes, one for each victim. Chris Schulmeister became mayor in 2026. In his campaign he said Allen had…

Geography

Allen is in southwestern Collin County, eight miles southwest of McKinney. Rowlett Creek flows through Allen, Plano and Garland into Lake Ray Hubbard, a Dallas water-supply reservoir in the East Fork of the Trinity River basin. In the Rowlett Creek watershed, which includes Allen, normal annual precipitation is about 40 to 41 inches, and August high temperatures average about 95 °F. Shortly after midnight on October 21, 2019, during a tornado outbreak across North Texas, an EF0 tornado with peak winds of about 80 mph tracked east from west Allen across U.S. 75 into Fairview. It tore shingles from houses and knocked down trees and fences.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  20,635
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  18,621
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  18,515
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  14,306
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,860
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  13,391
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  12,614
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  11,301

Largest nearby schools

• ALLEN H S
  High · ALLEN · 5,317 students · 19.2:1 ratio
• PLANO EAST SR H S
  High · PLANO · 3,082 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• WYLIE H S
  High · WYLIE · 3,044 students · 17.7:1 ratio
• MCKINNEY H S
  High · MCKINNEY · 2,918 students · 16.9:1 ratio
• ROCK HILL H S
  High · FRISCO · 2,832 students · 15.1:1 ratio
• MCKINNEY BOYD H S
  High · MCKINNEY · 2,651 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• PLANO WEST SENIOR H S
  High · PLANO · 2,625 students · 17.6:1 ratio
• PLANO SR H S
  High · PLANO · 2,288 students · 15.9:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2024-05-01
  7 km SSW of Mansfield, Texas
• M 3.2 — 2024-05-01
  7 km S of Mansfield, Texas
• M 2.51 — 2022-07-20
  9 km WSW of Lebanon, Oklahoma
• M 3.2 — 2019-10-01
  8 km SSW of Mansfield, Texas
• M 2.5 — 2019-07-08
  4 km SSE of Rendon, Texas
• M 2.8 — 2019-06-24
  1 km NW of Pottsboro, Texas