History of Lockefield Gardens, Indy’s first major public housing property
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Lockefield Gardens is located in the heart of downtown, just across from IUPUI. It now serves as apartments, but at one point it was a vibrant community for African Americans in the city.
“There was poverty. We’re coming in and out of the depression. The housing stock was pre-war in many cases, in many cities,” Susan Hall Dotson, the African American Collections Curator at the Indiana Historical Society said.
In an effort to bolster the economy, as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s new deal, the Public Works Administration funded fifty low cost public housing projects in 20 states. Lockefield Gardens was the first major public housing property in Indianapolis. It was also specifically designed for African Americans.
“They had new appliances. New state of the art appliances that were emerging at that time. There were open spaces. There were courtyards and playgrounds. They were marketed as the oasis of newness, as better quality housing stock,” Hall Dotson said.
Lockefield Gardens didn’t come without controversy. In order to build the new housing project, many homes on that property were declared slums and ordered to be demolished.
“It displaced people who were already there when they demolished the existing homes, many of them did not qualify because they did not earn enough to live there, so they had to migrate to other parts of the city to live,” Hall Dotson said.
Hall Dotson says the the creation of Lockefield Gardens also created an intentional divide at the time.
“There were white housing projects, and there were black housing projects, so then they created the segregated divide. So, where people may have lived together based on income, now they were based on race,” Hall Dotson said.
Lockefield Gardens opened in 1938. Long before that, Indiana Avenue was a flourishing area for Black culture in Indianapolis.
Dr. Patricia Turley is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at IUPUI.
“It was the residents that took ownership and really built this community together,” Turley said.
The addition of these new living spaces only added to an already thriving community. The residents who lived there continued to build a place where Black Hoosiers in the city could have fun, relax, and watch their families flourish.
“That sense of community and that sense of family. I’m going to be watching and making sure. Now, you’re not supposed to be doing that right? Those types of things we saw in Lockefield,” Turley said.
Things began to shift for Lockefield Gardens in the 1950’s. As communities began to be more integrated and upkeep of the property began to waver, it wasn’t long before many of the residents began to move.
“Expansions and other things were creeping around Indiana Avenue neighborhood and Lockefield before they actually closed it,” Hall Dotson said.
Much of the area continued to change and in the late 1970s, the apartments closed and were partially demolished.
This made way for IUPUI’s expansion in the 1980s.
After demolitions, only six of the original 24 buildings remained and they were placed on the National Registery of Historic Places
The other units were rehabilitated, and new ones were built to house athletes of the Pan Am games in 1987. After the games, the apartments were rented out to IUPUI students.