After World War II ended, the returning veterans and the ensuing baby boom exacerbated the need for suburban housing. William Levitt, the son of the founder of Levitt and Sons, saw a grand opportunity. He proposed utilizing the same mass-production techniques that had been used during the war in order to mass-produce homes for American families. Therefore, in 1947, Levitt and Sons purchased 1,200 acres of land in Long Island that used to be home to potato and onion fields. There, they started building a suburb that would come to be called Levittown.
The building process of Levittown became an example of productivity that other suburban constructers would seek to recreate in the future. They streamlined the process in order to maximize speed and churn out houses in record time. The assembly process took 26 steps and at the peak of efficiency, it was said that the company built one house every 16 minutes. About the construction of his suburbs, Levitt once said that they were not builders, but instead manufacturers. In 1951, the last of the 17,447 houses was built in Levittown.
Levitt sold the houses for about 7,000 dollars apiece. Purchasing families could apply for government loan programs through the Federal Housing Association or Veterans Affairs and as a result, many paid little or no down payments. Furthermore, recently implemented tax laws allowed mortgage to be interest deductible, on top of the fact that the mortgage was already cheaper than apartments in the city. These circumstances made house buying in Levittown a dream, provided that you were white. Levitt prevented black families from purchasing homes in Levittown and with the support of the government, Levittown remained racially segregated for decades. At one time, Levit stated that “If we sell one house to a Negro family… then 90 or 95 percent of our white customers will not buy into the community.” It was this redlining that accounts for the fact that to this day, only a tiny fraction of the community is not white.
These racist policies were not the only thing that Levittown was criticized for. Critics and architects denounced the suburb for its uniform design and lack of differentiability. From the picture, you can see that each house looks exactly like one another. This uniformity serves as a symbol of how the mass consumption mindset seeped into all areas of American life.
However, for many, Levittown symbolized the fulfillment of their hopes for a better standard of living. By 1950, 80% of the men living in Levittown commuted to Manhattan for their jobs. From their perspective, having a house, a car to commute to work, and an idyllic life in the suburbs was a physical embodiment of the American Dream.
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I really enjoyed how detailed and clear your blog post is. I found it interesting that houses were manufactured every few minutes! I chose to research further into the segregation in the town. In the town covenant, a specific clause stated that tenants other than Caucasians were prohibited from occupying a Levitt home. This clause became a norm for housing developments throughout the country due to the 1926 Supreme Court ruling that upheld it. However, in 1948, the clause was removed from the covenant of Levittown since the Supreme Court said that its racial-rooted restrictions went against the 14th Amendment. As you mention in the article, though, there are still only a few non-white members occupying the Levittown community.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/levittown-history-in-photos-1.13458781
I love all the facts that you brought up -- building a house in 16 minutes is crazy! The concept of Levittown in of itself is interesting as it illustrated how Americans were focusing more and more on conformity. Levittown reminded me very vividly of a scene from the move A Wrinkle in Time where the main characters find themselves in a neighborhood with identical houses and residents in identical clothes performing the same actions. In A Wrinkle in Time, the neighborhood is portrayed in a subtly sinister way indicating that exact replicas of each other is more weird than being a little bit different. In a broader perspective, Levittown became the model city with model houses and model families.
ReplyDeleteThis was such an intresting topic that I had never really heard of before, I'm so glad you took the time to blog about it because it was to intriguing! I think it is super imporant to talk about the after effects of World War II on a country and their ecocnmy, because as we can see from many past wars how countires recover economically greatly shapes their futures and the distribution of power in thier nation. I think Levittown is a prime example of how strong America's economy bounced back from almost every war, they always ended wars with rising markets and consumption rates. Although I think the racist foundations of Levittown also help to demonstrate the war America was fighting with itself over civil rights and the growing movement for equality.
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