Seminal Salt Lake City residents come and go with time but their contributions continue to live on in the city. Avid bird enthusiast and surgeon, Dr. George A. Allen was one such resident having helped found Tracy Aviary and Hogle Zoo, Allen Park is the latest contribution to enter the public space.
Located on 1300 East Northbound and just across the street from Westminster College, Allen Park (colloquially known as Hobbitville), was bought by the city for $7.5 million and opened to the public in Oct. 2020. It is now managed by the city’s Trails and Natural Lands Division.
Today anyone can enjoy Allen Park and It is a long time coming considering its long history.
Out Of A Storybook
Outside of birds, another passion of Allen’s was poetry. To be found throughout the park are small pieces of mosaic artwork and statues accompanied by lines from pieces of classic literature. Many have been damaged by the elements, but are still readable.
Many of the quotations can be attributed to poets from the Romanticism Movement such as Walt Whitman, John Keats and William Wordsworth. This artistic period that occupied the late 18th to 19th century was characterized by a love for nature and a heavy emphasis on the emotional expression of the self.
One mosaic with a small aspen tree reads “I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree” which is the first line from Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees”, a poem about the beauty of nature and the limitations of a poet’s craft.
Another reads, “the bird of time has but a little way to fly” which is a line from “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” translated by Edward Fitzgerald about the fleeting nature of time.
Due to the thick foliage, the sound of Emigration Creek and the dell it occupies there is little noise from the outside world to be heard beyond birds chirping and wind blowing through the trees. It’s difficult to believe that such a peaceful place was almost torn down for another overpriced housing development.
The homes that dot the property are not in great condition today but the sheer number of them shows how large the community that lived there once was. Other than homes there are other echoes of the past like a small aviary near an old pond, group seating areas and an old fountain. There’s a long history here and it’s a history worth preserving.
Here There Be Hobbits
The 8-acre property that stretches across Emigration Creek was purchased by Allen and Ruth Larson Allen in 1931 and they originally used it as a habitat for their exotic bird collection.
Though it gives off the impression that one might see a fairy or hobbit, the actual fauna are comprised of deer, peacocks, turkeys and many other birds.
The colloquial name for the park comes from the small living quarters dotted around the property, built to house professors, students, artists and even patients attended to by Allen. The urban legend of fairytale creatures haunting its hills was propagated by high school students.
The homes were not built until the 1940s and are mainly comprised of houses that were built elsewhere and transported to Allen Park. One home is named Mary Rose, in honor of Allen’s daughter.
Allen passed away in the 1960s and sadly the park fell into disrepair without him and would have deteriorated even further without the intervention of the volunteer group, Friends of Allen Park. One of the larger homes on the property, “Allan Lodge” was fully repaired thanks to their efforts. Before opening to the public, Allen Park remained a privately owned community, only open to visitors on Sundays.
In November 2022, Salt Lake City Residents passed a $85 million bond proposed by Mayor Erin Mendenhall to fund trails, parks and other public-use lands in Salt Lake City, $4.5 million of which was allocated to the further improvement of Allen Park.
Salt Lake City’s Public Lands Department partnered with GSBS Architecture to plan out the future of Allen Park earlier this year in the Spring. The goal in mind is to make it more useable but retain its unique character. Feedback from the public is still open and will likely remain that way throughout September.
Funding already received and potential future funding are expected to pay for an already planned irrigation and fire-suppression system, restoring and preserving the homes on the property and preserving the artwork on site.
