Levittown is the name of several large
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
an housing developments created in the United States (including one in
Puerto Rico) by
William J. Levitt and his company
Levitt & Sons. Built after
World War II for returning white
veterans and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The
Veterans Administration and the
Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guaranteed builders that qualified veterans could buy housing for a fraction of rental costs.
The first Levittown home sold for $7,900 and in a short period of time, 17,000 units were sold, providing homes for 84,000 people. In addition to normal family dwellings, Levittowns provided private meeting areas, swimming pools, public parks, and recreational facilities.
Production was modeled on
assembly lines in 27 steps with construction workers trained to perform one step. A house could be built in one day, with 36 men, when effectively scheduled. This enabled quick and economical production of similar or identical homes with rapid recovery of costs. Standard Levittown houses included a
white picket fence
Picket fences are a type of fence often used decoratively for domestic boundaries, distinguished by their evenly spaced vertical boards, the ''pickets'', attached to horizontal rails. Picket fences are particularly popular in the United States, ...
, green
lawns, and modern appliances. Sales in the original Levittown began in March 1947. 1,400 homes were purchased during the first three hours.
Places
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Levittown, New York - the first Levittown (built 1947–1951)
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Levittown, Pennsylvania - the second Levittown (1952–1958)
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Willingboro Township, New Jersey
Willingboro Township is a township in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is a suburb of Philadelphia and part of the state's South Jersey region.
As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,889, an increase of ...
- originally and colloquially known as Levittown (started 1958)
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Levittown, Puerto Rico (1963)
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Bowie, Maryland (1964)
Gallery
Controversy
William J. Levitt refused to sell Levittown homes to people of color, and the FHA, upon authorizing loans for the construction of Levittown, included racial covenants in each deed, making each Levittown a
segregated community.
The first black family, the Myers, who bought a second-hand house there in Pennsylvania, in 1957 experienced attacks on their house, and up to 500 whites gathering outside their house.
Martin Luther King met with the family, and their plight led to legislative change. They stayed for four years until Myers, a World War II veteran, got a job elsewhere. These events were recorded in the contemporary documentary film "Racism in America Small Town 1950s Case Study Documentary Film" which interviews white residents there but not the Myers.
See also
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Redlining
In the United States, redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investment; these neighborhoods have signif ...
References
History of veterans' affairs in the United States
Mass production
Planned communities in the United States
Planned residential developments
{{planning-stub
Veterans' settlement schemes