Levittown Turns 60

While on vacation, I found an article in the September 30th Springfield State Journal Register about America's first major post-WWII suburb that was built by William Levitt on Long Island, NY. He started selling his homes on October 1st.

A huge 60th birthday party was planned for the 30th including a parade with nearly 24 former Levittown homeowners as grand marshals.

"It was October 1947 when developer William Levitt opened the first of what became 17, 544 Cape Cod and ranch houses rising from blighted potato fields 40 miles east of New York City, handing post-World War II GIs the keys to their American dream."

"It was an instant success, a prototype widely chronicled and duplicated nationwide."

Cape Cods originally sold for $6,990 and ranches for a thousand more. They were built on concrete slabs as basements would have slowed construction. Homes had "4 rooms, a bath, unfinished attic and amenities--steel kitchen cabinets, Bendix washer, GE refrigerator, Hotpoint range."

Prices for the homes today start at around $400,000, not a bad appreciation, although only a few still look like they did when built with all the modifications. Today, homes like these would not be considered to be much, what with all the McMansions being built and the ever expanding floor space. But this planned suburb set the stage for subdivisions all across the US.

Blacks were excluded at first, but later allowed to buy, but even today, only .5% of the inhabitants are black.

"Levittown turns 60" by Frank Eltman, Associated Press

From Wikipedia

The 2000 census had Levittown's population at 53,667 in 17,410 housing units. A total of 94.15% are white. Famous residents include Bill Griffith, the cartoonist for Zippy the Pinhead. Also Billy Joel lived here and Eddie Money attended the high school.

This was the first of a total of four Levittowns, the others being in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Puerto Rico. The Long Island Levittown was built from 1947-1951. It was "the first truly mass-produced suburb and is widely regarded as the archetype for postwar suburbs throughout the country." Their designs are also to be found in an older part of Buffalo Grove, Illinois. This town is not too far from me so I just might have to check it out some day.

To speed up production, precut lumber was used in a production line technique that would have made Henry Ford proud. To further keep costs down, non-union contractors were used.

In 1949, the larger and more modern ranch style homes were added to the home designs. The ranch home is enjoying a return to popularity today as the baby boomers get older and find climbing stairs to be much more difficult.

Buyers had to come up with $90 down and paid $58 a month. I'm paying $650 a month just in taxes!!!

From 1963 to 1970, my family lived in a later version of Levittown called Winston Park in Palatine, Illinois.

Little Houses Made of Ticky Tocky. --RoadDog