Lockefield Garden Apartments

About this property

Lockefield Gardens was the first public housing built in Indianapolis. Constructed during the years 1935 to 1938, it was built exclusively for low income African-Americans in Indianapolis. The complex was closed in 1976, and a number of structures were demolished in the early 1980s. The only original structures remaining are those along Blake Street. Due to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, the Public Works Administration funded fifty low-cost public housing projects in twenty states in what were previously slum areas. Indianapolis was chosen to have one of these renovations; it would be the first major public housing within Indiana's capital city. This land originally had 363 residences, of which only one was seen as "habitable". Another goal of the project was to provide temporary construction jobs in the area, 9,000 in total. This was done despite the wishes of Indiana congressmen, as they feared that private enterprises would be hurt by federal projects such as this. Three million dollars was spent on the Lockefield Gardens project, which opened in February 1938. Twenty-two acres (8.9 ha) along Indiana Avenue were chosen as the site of the 748 separate housing units. Based on European prototypes, they were designed by the Russ and Harrison architecture firm and built by N. P. Severin Company of Chicago. The twenty-four buildings which made up the complex ranged from two to four stories. "Corner", "strip", and "tee" models used by the Public Works Administration in other projects were used here. Among the amenities of this housing were a central mall, four playgrounds (with thirteen smaller play areas), a school (William D. McCoy Public School #24), and a small shopping arcade. It featured plenty of ventilation, abundant natural sunlight, and pleasant views of the area. Rents ranged from $20.80 to $30.10 a month. Lionel Artis was chosen as the original apartment housing manager, a position he held until his retirement in 1969, a span of over thirty years. After construction, it was considered one of the best of the New Deal housing projects. The spacious, wide-open areas of Lockefield Gardens were an oddity; other New Deal housing projects were cramped. When it originally opened, Lockefield Gardens was racially segregated, but it allowed African-Americans something they rarely had: a community-oriented residence. Lockefield Gardens became the nucleus of the black community located immediately northwest of downtown Indianapolis. From 1948 to 1974, Lockefield Gardens was home to the annual Dust Bowl Tournament, a basketball tournament for male graduates of Indiana high schools. The tournament was named after a gravel basketball court on the south end of Lockefield Gardens. Several famous basketball players participated in these tournaments, including Harlem Globetrotter Willie Gardner and NBA Player Oscar Robertson.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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