Dates

• Existence: 1857-1930
• Existence: 1857 - 1930

Biographical Statement

Kenneth Allen, C.E. (Sherburn, Mass.,) son of Edward A. H. and Eugenia S. (Tenlon) Allen, was born in New Bedford, Mass., April 6, 1857. He remained at New Bedford until the summer of 1872, when he went to Madison, Wis., and spent a year in the preparatory school of the University of Wisconsin. The next year was spent at the West Newton (Mass.) English and Classical School which he left to enter the Institute in 1874 and graduated in 1879 with the degree in of Civil Engineer.

Throughout 1879 Allen worked for the Boston Water-Works but moved on to railway work for approximately three years, first with Western railways and then with the Pittsburgh McKeesport, and Youghiogheny Railway Company. For several years Allen was employed to conduct surveys for the Water Department of Philadelphia but again went west to work for various railways throughout Kansas and Missouri. For the next several decades Allen continued engineering work for railways, water sewage companies and bridges, primarily in the eastern part of the country (Pennsylvania, Massachussetts, and New Jersey). The latter part of Allen's career focused on work with various water sewage companies, but most notably he was appointed Engineer of the Metropolitan Sewarage Commission of New York in 1908.

Career projects are as follows: 1875 - 1877, Boston Water Works, Sudbury River, Framingham, MA.

April 1879 - September 1879, Lawrence, MA. Sep. 1879 - Feb. 1881, Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad February 1881 - May 1881, Missouri Pacific Railroad, Mineola, Texas May 1881 - May 1882, Building Dept., Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, Topeka, KS

May, 1882 - May 1883, Pittsburg, McKeesport & Youghiogheny Railroad, Pittsburg, PA

May 1883, Philadelphia Water Department of Surveys, Philadelphia, PA

1886, Civil Engineer, iron and steel structures, Kansas City, MO.

Member of Engineers Society Western Pennsylvania, (resigned January, 1884), Rensselaer Society of Engineers, and Engineers Club of Philadelphia.

Married, 1886, Rose Switzer, of Philadelphia, PA. (from Henry B. Nason's Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of RPI, 1823-1886)

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