Photo by Tom Campbell

When Garrick Mallery closed his Noblesville, Ind., office in 1999 to work out of his house, he took the front window with him.

Garrick Mallery, BS ’51, has owned a few trotting horses in his day, perhaps a few more than he would care to admit. He owns a dozen now. Some, including one of his personal favorites, Black and Gold Pete, have even won races at tracks around central Indiana.

But about the only way to make money on racehorses, even trotters, is summed up by this old farm joke: How do you make a million dollars in agriculture? You start with $2 million and you know when to quit.

“People ask me all the time if I’ve ever made any money on my horses,” the 79-year-old Mallery says.

“I always answer this way. I ask them, ‘You play golf, right? You bought clubs and you pay green fees and you rent a cart to ride around in for a couple of hours. Are you making any money at that?’

“Raising horses and racing them is just a hobby for me, but I love it.”

For 60 years, Mallery has had another vocation that helps pay for the hay consumed by his avocation.

Mallery has made a career out of appraising, developing, buying and selling real estate in Hamilton County, Indiana. He has had a hand in transforming an agrarian county into one of the fastest growing areas in the state.

Photo by Tom Campbell

There were not many real estate agents in Indiana when Garrick Mallery earned his license in 1949. His license is number 1138.

He was just 20 years old when he sold his first house in Noblesville for $3,000 in 1947. A fellow broker told him, “If you stick with real estate and appraising, you’ll make more money than those professors up at Purdue.”

He was making $5 a day as an appraiser, but he wanted a college education.

Mallery already had a semester to his credit in Purdue’s School of Engineering before he turned 18 and enlisted in the Army. So he figured he could go back to West Lafayette, earn a degree in agricultural economics and support himself by selling real estate back home on the weekends.

“I wanted to learn about land, so it made sense to get a degree in agricultural economics,” Mallery says.

He received a $35 academic scholarship from Noblesville High School, a $50 4-Hscholarship and $50 as the son of a disabled war veteran.

“That $135 was enough to get me into Purdue in 1945,” Mallery says. As a student, he hosted a weekly farm show on Purdue’s radio station, WBAA. “That was great fun. I’d talk about what was happening on the farm, or on the ag campus, and read the commodity prices. I think that if I hadn’t gotten into real estate, I could have gone into radio broadcasting as a career.”

When interstate highways were being built all across the United States, Mallery was involved. He helped appraise land that became I-69, cutting through Hamilton County between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, and I-465 as it loops north of Indianapolis. He also helped developers locate and purchase a 240-acre tract that eventually became the site of the Deer Creek Music Center, an outdoor performance venue that can accommodate 18,000 people for concerts.

“Dave Lucas, the Deer Creek developer, called me one day and said, ‘I hear you know everybody and everything in Hamilton County. Is that true?’

“Well, not quite,” was Mallery’s reply. But he did recall a favorite tract of land from his childhood.

“We used to drive by that site every day as kids heading to school on the bus. So I showed it to him.”

Mallery was a proud guest when the venue, now known as the Verizon Wireless Music Center, first hosted live, outdoor performances in 1990. Bob Hope was the first star to perform at the center.

“I’m very fortunate,” Mallery says from his home on the banks of the White River. “I’ve been able to spend my life doing what I love to do. I deal in dirt. I sell land.”

Mallery always knew that Hamilton County, situated on the northern edge of Indianapolis, was a ripe location for economic growth. “I knew it was going to happen,” he says. “I just didn’t think it would all happen in my lifetime.”

While some may not equate the economic explosion of Hamilton County with progress, Mallery lived through enough of the Great Depression to know that anything now is better than anything then.

“When I was 8 years old, my mom needed an operation that cost $100. I was scared to death worrying that we were going to go bankrupt trying to pay the doctor bill. We ended up selling a couple of hogs to pay for it. I remember those times, but I’m not willing to go back.”

Nor is he going to slow down. Last year Mallery sold a property earmarked for a community park for $5 million. And he has equally big plans for the future.

“I plan on selling something when I’m 100 years old, you just wait and see. As long as I can do it and as long as people still want me to help them, I’ll do it.”

Contact Mallery at (317) 773-4679