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Allen Park’s “Hobbitville” lore reflects idiosyncratic community history and surviving park features
Summary
Folklorist Dr. Lynn McNeal described Allen Park in Salt Lake City as the center of local stories about “Hobbitville,” tracing the site’s origins to Dr. George Allen in the early 1930s and noting surviving features such as peacocks and small rustic houses.
Dr. Lynn McNeal, a professor of folklore at Utah State University, said Allen Park in Salt Lake City has a long, unusual history that fed local rumors and the nickname "Hobbitville." McNeal traced the park’s roots to Dr. George Allen, a local physician who developed the site in the early 1930s and kept animals there for public enjoyment.
"This park was originally started by Dr. George Allen in the early 1930s," McNeal said. "He was a local physician, and he was known as just a really good guy. He offered medical services to a lot of people who couldn't afford it. He also was an animal lover. One of the first things he did was move in a bunch of animals."
McNeal described animals kept or displayed there in earlier years — an elephant, a chimpanzee and reindeer — and said some descendants of the original peacocks remain in the park. Local lore, she said, gave rise to stories of small, rustic houses and the idea that "hobbits" or "little people" once lived there; folklorists classify the phenomenon as an idiosyncratic community that draws explanation through rumor and legend.
On practical matters, McNeal said the park is open to the public from sunrise to sunset and advised visitors to look for peacocks and mosaicked sculptures and benches around the houses.
The interview treated the "Hobbitville" label as a product of storytelling rather than a literal community of fictional characters: "Local legend has long held that this was a community of hobbits, or at least little people, living in this park," McNeal said. "So this is what some folklorists have called an idiosyncratic community."
