Andrew Means Park Manor

Born in Alabama, Andrew Means graduated from the Tuskegee Institute in 1918. He studied under George Washington Carver and was befriended by Tuskegee Institute President Booker T. Washington. After graduation, Means spent a few years in the US Army and subsequently worked as a railroad porter.[1] Means then traveled north to Gary, Indiana, in order to work in the steel mills, a path taken by many African Americans at the time.[2] This influx of African Americans moving north for fair and equal jobs, and to escape segregation in the South was known as the Great Migration. From the 1910s to 1970, over 6 million African Americans from the rural South migrated to northern cities, including Gary.[3]

In 1922, Andrew Means and his brother, Geter, created a homebuilding business with $90 and a borrowed typewriter. Means Brothers, Inc. became one of the Midwest’s largest African American real estate development companies.[4] The brothers created 11 housing developments with nearly 2000 homes and/or rental properties in Gary alone. They created homes for African Americans using African American employees and sub-contractors.[5] In addition to housing developments, Andrew Means also constructed the Gary First Baptist church, where he was a member, within the Andrew Means Park Manor neighborhood.[6]

Of all the housing the brothers developed, Andrew Means Park Manor, also known as “Means Manor”, was the most impactful to the Gary community and still exists today. The neighborhood consists of nearly 150 homes[7] including Andrews Means’ own home. At the time of construction in the early 1950s, Means Manor provided African American families safe affordable single family housing at a time when many neighborhoods did not welcome African Americans and Gary was deeply segregated.[8] Remembered by a former resident “I think the community flourished because everyone there was there under the same circumstances. A lot of the families that came, that lived in my neighborhood, their parents came from the South and they were there primarily because of the steel mills, because those were guaranteed jobs, that was guaranteed income.”[9] At the time of its construction, the homes in Means Manor were priced from $15,000 to $75,000.[10]

Means Manor is located in Gary’s Midtown neighborhood. When Means Manor was constructed, 97% of Gary’s African American population lived in the Midtown neighborhood. The neighborhood was mostly self-contained with many retail outlets as African Americans were excluded from Downtown Gary prior to desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s.[11] Means Manor remains as a legacy to Andrew Means and his brother’s achievements of providing affordable and equal housing to Gary’s African American community.

[1] Indiana Landmarks. African American Landmarks. Indiana Landmarks, 2019. Accessed May 21, 2020. https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/02/andrew-means-gary-developer/
[2] Allison Shuette. Didn’t Want Us To Grow Up Thinking the World Was Terrible. Welcome Project, 2017. Accessed May 21, 2020. https://welcomeproject.valpo.edu/2017/01/27/didnt-want-us-to-grow-up-thinking-the-world-was-terrible/
[3] The Great Migration, 2020. https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration. Accessed May 22, 2020.
[4] Indiana Landmarks.
[5] African American businessman, Andrew Means,of Gary Indiana. He is successful in real estate and construction. https://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675045071_Negro-Americans_Leslie-Builders-and-Contractors_construction-site_buildings. Accessed May 22, 2020.
[6] Indiana Landmarks.
[7] Leroy W. Jeffries. Blueprint for better negro business. Negro Digest. December 1961. Accessed May 21, 2020. https://books.google.com/books?id=b7MDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=%22means+park+manor%22+gary&source=bl&ots=Qgmdcz3Y7Z&sig=ACfU3U1sL9M0rnOo3H_srKnYBY2JdKQ-fg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHnMC4nZrpAhXGKM0KHYMUAfIQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22means%20park%20manor%22%20gary&f=false
[8] Indiana Landmarks.
[9] Allison Shuette.
[10] Leroy W. Jeffries.
[11] Andrew Hurley. Environmental Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980. 1993. University of North Caroline Press.

Student Author: Mary Swartz
Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson
Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey

PHOTO & VIDEO:
Courtesy Indiana Landmarks https://www.indianalandmarks.org/2019/02/andrew-means-gary-developer/