Allen Park Municipal Building
Gilead Baptist Church was founded in 1942 in an apartment in Detroit. As the church grew, it relocated to Allen Park in 1956, where work was started on a combination school and sanctuary. The auditorium was finished in 1960, and could seat over 3,000 people.
Continued growth meant that before long the church had outgrown it's Allen Park location, and in 1973 the Gilead moved to Taylor, where it is still located today. The City of Allen Park bought the church building in 1974 and moved most of the city's offices, including city council, the tax assessors, and a district court into it in 1975. An addition in 1978 was built to accommodate the local police department.
In 2009, Allen Park bought a vacant industrial building next to the city hall with plans to lease it to a movie studio, hoping to cash in on the burgeoning movie industry. However, the investment turned sour after the State of Michigan began rolling back film incentives, and the studio closed in 2010. As the city went into a financial emergency, routine maintenance was deferred at the municipal building, until by 2014 it had deteriorated beyond repair. In 2015, the city moved its offices and police headquarters into part of the movie studio complex and put the old building up for sale. It was demolished in February of 2017.
