Levittown
Levittown, located on Long Island, New York, is a significant example of post-World War II suburban development led by real estate developer William Levitt and his family firm, Levitt and Sons. Initially named Island Trees, the project began in 1947 to address the urgent housing needs of returning veterans and their growing families. By streamlining the construction process into 27 distinct steps and employing innovative techniques, the Levitts were able to produce homes quickly and affordably, ultimately building up to 30 houses a day. The community expanded rapidly, growing to 17,447 homes by 1951, and became a model for suburban development across the United States, with additional Levittowns established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico.
While Levittown is often critiqued for its conformity and lack of racial diversity, it played a crucial role in providing accessible housing during a time of significant demographic change and the post-war baby boom. The development reflects broader trends in American society, including the rise of suburban living and the quest for homeownership among middle-class families. Despite its controversies, Levittown remains a notable landmark in the history of American housing and urban planning.
Levittown
Identification Mass-produced suburban community
Date First Levittown built between 1947 and 1951
Place Long Island, New York
Levittown addressed the need for housing in the postwar period and was part of adjustments to the emerging baby boom and suburban lifestyle.
Located on Long Island in New York, the first Levittown community was the brainchild of William Levitt. Levitt, with his father, Abraham, and brother Alfred, was part of the successful real estate development firm of Levitt and Sons. Before the war, the firm had specialized in building upscale housing on Long Island. In 1941, the firm won a wartime government contract to build sixteen hundred houses for workers at the Norfolk shipyard. The Levitts figured out how to streamline the building process to make it more similar to mass production. Instead of building one house at a time, they divided the building process into twenty-seven steps and trained twenty-seven teams of workers, one to carry out each step.
William Levitt then joined the Seabees, the construction unit of the U.S. Navy, and spent the remainder of World War II building airstrips in the Pacific islands and talking to builders and craftsmen in his unit about how to perfect his building process. When he came back from the war, he saw the need for housing for military veterans. He had a vision not only of building middle-class houses cheaply and quickly, but also of stocking them with modern conveniences and creating neighborhoods around them.
On May 7, 1947, Levitt and Sons announced their plan to build a neighborhood called Island Trees on a stretch of old potato farms in Nassau County, Long Island. The community would contain two thousand brand-new homes, each of which would cost less than seven thousand dollars and would be available to veterans with no down payment.
The company was immediately besieged with offers, and more than half the homes had been rented within two days of the Levitts’ announcement. By then, most G.I.’s had come home from Europe and the Pacific, and the post-World War II baby boom was just beginning. People were getting married and starting families at younger ages, and they were having larger families. This expansion in the young population, combined with a lack of available housing, meant that many young families were living either in cramped quarters with their parents or in makeshift housing such as garages and even in villages of Quonset huts.
Understanding that they were addressing a critical need, the Levitts worked with an eye toward precision, speed, and cost-effectiveness. They perfected their technique to the point where they could build up to thirty houses a day by July, 1948. They used concrete slab foundations, which had been forbidden before the housing shortage became acute, and used precut wood and nails from a factory the company created specifically for that purpose. A finished house measured 32 by 25 feet. The demand was so high for these homes that the firm immediately expanded the project to include four thousand more units.
Impact
Although the Levitts originally named the community Island Trees, it quickly became known as Levittown. Between 1947 and 1951, the Levitts continually expanded the community until it eventually had 17,447 homes. Levitt and Sons went on to build three other Levittowns, in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico. Although Levittown was and is still often criticized for being overly conformist, sanitized, and racially homogeneous, it provided much-needed housing for young middle-class families and returning war veterans. In the long term, it provided a prototype for postwar suburbia.
Bibliography
Matarrese, Lynne. The History of Levittown, New York. Levittown, N.Y.: Levittown Historical Society, 1997.
Nicolaides, Becky, and Andrew Wiese, eds. The Suburb Reader. London: Routledge, 2006.