Allen Park, Michigan, United States

🇺🇸 Allen Park is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan.

Ford Motor Company is an integral part of the community. Many of the company's offices and facilities lie within the city limits. Since 2002, Allen Park is the practice home of the Detroit Lions football team and is also the site of the team's headquarters. The city is known for its tree-lined streets, brick houses, and the Fairlane Green Shopping Center that opened in 2006. The city was once recognised in Money Magazine's list of America's Best Small Cities. Allen Park is part of the collection of communities known as Downriver.

Allen Park is home to the Uniroyal Giant Tire, the largest non-production tire scale model ever built, and one of the world's largest roadside attractions. Originally a Ferris wheel at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the structure was moved to Allen Park in 1966.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.05 square miles (18.26 km²), of which 7.00 square miles (18.13 km²) is land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km²) (0.71%) is water.

Boundaries Allen Park borders Southgate to the South, Lincoln Park to the east, Melvindale to the north-east, Dearborn to the north, Dearborn Heights to the north-west, and Taylor to the west.

Major Roads • I-75 runs through the south-east corner of Allen Park between Goddard Road and the Lincoln Park border. • I-94 runs through the northern portion of Allen Park between Pelham Road and the Rouge River. • M-39, Southfield Road, is an eight-lane boulevard that travels in a northwest–southeast direction between the Lincoln Park border and I-94. It becomes the Southfield Freeway and curves to the north-east after the I-94 interchange.

History Allen Park was incorporated as a village in 1927, and as a city in 1957. It was named after Lewis Allen, a well-to-do lawyer and lumberman whose 276½ acres of land (primarily in Ecorse Township) included holdings in what are now Allen Park and Melvindale. Hubert Champaign (for whom Champaign Park is named) and Edward Pepper were two other early residents of the area.

In 1950 Allen Park did not include the part of the city directly west of Melvindale; that area was still part of Ecorse Township.

Sports In 2009, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) announced that Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park would be the main site for the inaugural PBA World Series of Bowling. This unique event featured the first seven tournaments of the PBA's 2009–10 season all contested in the same area. One tournament (Motor City Open) was contested in nearby Taylor, MI, while the other six (including the PBA World Championship qualifying and match play rounds) took place at Thunderbowl. The 2009 events ran August 2-September 6, with the televised finals being taped by ESPN on September 5–6. Thunderbowl Lanes has hosted additional PBA tournaments since that time, including the five-event PBA Fall Swing in September, 2016 and both the 2018 and 2021 PBA Tour Finals. The World Series of Bowling returned to Thunderbowl Lanes for its tenth anniversary in the 2019 PBA Tour season, with events running March 11–21.

The National Football League's Detroit Lions have their offices and training facility in Allen Park.