LeMoyne Gardens: generations of community, resilience and renewal in Inkster

INKSTER, Mich. For generations of Inkster families, LeMoyne Gardens meant home. It was where children grew up, neighbors formed lasting friendships and residents worked to build a better life.

Its history holds both opportunity and struggle: housing for Black workers shut out of surrounding communities, permanent homes for growing families, tenant organizing, public safety concerns and repeated calls for better living conditions.

On Aug. 31, 2026, LeMoyne Gardens reached a new milestone. The National Park Service listed it on the National Register of Historic Places as part of a nationwide survey of urban renewal-era places. The listed area is generally bounded by Henry Ruff Road, Liberty Street, Burton Street, Annapolis Avenue, Pine Street, Pierce Street, Kenwood Avenue and Andover Street.

A community born from necessity

During World War II, workers poured into metro Detroit to fill factory jobs supporting the war effort. Inkster sat between two of the biggest: Ford's Rouge Plant to the east and the Willow Run Bomber Plant to the west. For Black workers and their families, finding housing was especially hard.

Restrictive covenants, redlining and racial discrimination closed off much of the surrounding housing market. Southwest Inkster became one of the few places near the war plants with housing for Black workers, according to the State Historic Preservation Office's history of housing in Inkster.

In 1942, according to the state's 2023 report on African American housing in Inkster, the Federal Public Housing Authority approved 400 temporary units for Black war workers near Middlebelt and Annapolis roads. Built from prefabricated sections, the development became known to residents as "Cardboard City" for its lightweight construction.

Although meant to be temporary, the homes stayed occupied into the late 1950s. Former residents recalled coal stoves, iceboxes and crowded rooms, but also a community where adults looked out for one another's children.

Permanent homes and new possibilities

Urban renewal brought a permanent replacement. The Inkster Housing Commission, with former Ford employee Louis J. Demby at the helm, led Inkster's urban renewal projects and new public housing in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the state report says. The northern LeMoyne Gardens subdivision was platted in 1959, followed by the southern subdivision in 1963.

The neighborhood mixed one-story apartments for seniors with two-story homes, duplexes and multifamily buildings for families, with green space between buildings along streets including Pine, Liberty and Meadow Circle.

The residents who preserved its story

Much of what we know comes from residents themselves. Larry Richard Spencer, who grew up first in Cardboard City and later in LeMoyne Gardens, shared his memories in an oral history interview at a Cardboard City reunion in Inkster Park on Sept. 10, 2022. Those interviews became part of the state's report.

Residents Florine Bond and Iris Long remembered the replacement homes with pride. Long recalled hardwood floors and room for her growing family. Management handed out flowers for residents to plant, and young people earned summer money mowing lawns and helping seniors.

Those memories give the neighborhood's history its human side: families settling in, children finding their place and residents taking pride in where they lived.

1976: residents demand better conditions

Public housing did not end disputes over upkeep and rent.

On Oct. 8, 1976, the Ann Arbor Sun reported that about 130 tenants at LeMoyne Gardens and Demby Terrace were on a rent strike over maintenance and rent increases. The Inkster Tenants Rights Organization had been organizing for six months.

According to the paper, the Housing Commission agreed to set up an arbitration process and drop 50 lawsuits for unpaid rent, and another 80 tenants withholding rent were expected to join the arbitration. The paper also reported that residents had physically blocked an eviction before the agreement was reached. It is a documented example of families organizing for a stronger voice in their own housing.

Hard years: violence, drugs and controversial checkpoints

Like many communities, Inkster went through periods when violence and drug activity put heavy pressure on neighborhoods.

FBI crime reporting compiled by the Disaster Center shows 16 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters citywide in 1985, up from eight in 1980. Those are citywide totals; they do not show how many happened in LeMoyne Gardens.

In September 1989, authorities tried vehicle checkpoints in an Inkster neighborhood to disrupt drug sales, the Observer & Eccentric reported. The paper described it as an anti-drug effort promoted by Wayne County Sheriff Robert Ficano with local police taking part. An Oct. 5, 1989, report said state Sen. William Faust and former Inkster Mayor Edward Bivens Jr., represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged the checkpoints as unconstitutional. Ficano defended them, citing traffic complaints that residents tied to drug sales, and the checkpoints were suspended pending a court ruling. Those accounts do not say whether LeMoyne Gardens was among the streets involved.

LeMoyne Gardens itself has seen serious incidents. On Sept. 19, 2024, five to six shots were fired at Inkster officers near a home on Klink Street between Pine and Pierce streets, WXYZ reported. Several agencies joined the search, and no one was hit.

Continuing calls for safe, well-kept homes

Residents have kept speaking up about conditions.

In September 2018, WXYZ reported that one LeMoyne Gardens mother had lived with a cockroach infestation for years, and other residents described mold, water leaks and unsecured gas lines. Andrew Cater, president of the LeMoyne Gardens Resident Council, called the conditions unacceptable. Paul Bollinger, then interim director of the Housing Commission, told the station the commission did not condone the conditions and would work to improve the units.

It is a demand that runs through every generation of this story: affordable housing should also be safe, healthy and dignified.

Holding on to connections, and planning for reinvestment

Community ties have endured. The 2022 Cardboard City reunion helped make sure residents' own experiences entered the public record.

Support continues in practical ways, too. The Housing Commission lists a Forgotten Harvest food distribution at LeMoyne Gardens, 29999 Pine St., on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 2 to 4 p.m., or until the food runs out.

Public records show plans to reinvest. In January 2023, Inkster's Planning Commission held a hearing on The Richman Group's plan to redevelop LeMoyne Gardens' multifamily housing across 11 lots. Phase I proposed tearing down 16 townhouses to build a new apartment building on a 2.71-acre parcel. Plans like this can change, and we have not confirmed where construction stands today.

A foundation for the next chapter

LeMoyne Gardens' history has much to honor: families overcoming housing discrimination, neighbors supporting one another, residents organizing for better conditions and former residents preserving their memories.

There are also concrete signs of progress in housing services. On July 29, 2026, the city announced that HUD had confirmed the Inkster Housing Commission completed its Recovery Agreement, meeting benchmarks meant to strengthen operations, compliance and stability. Earlier this year, the commission also earned an A, HUD's highest health and safety inspection rating. The announcement credited Acting Executive Director Sheena Wells, board chair Greg Gillette and the commission's staff. (Our earlier story has more.)

Together with national historic recognition and plans for reinvestment, that progress offers a foundation for a better next chapter. The work ahead is turning that momentum into improvements residents feel every day: well-kept homes, responsive service and strong community ties.

The people who built their lives in LeMoyne Gardens gave the neighborhood its character. Honoring them means preserving its history while making it a better place for the next generation to call home.

Sources: National Park Service, National Register weekly list (Sept. 4, 2026); Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, "African American Housing in Inkster, Michigan, 1920-1970" (2023); The Ann Arbor Sun (Oct. 8, 1976); Observer & Eccentric (Sept. 21 and Oct. 5, 1989); FBI Uniform Crime Reports via the Disaster Center; WXYZ Detroit (Sept. 2018 and Sept. 19, 2024); Inkster Housing Commission; City of Inkster.