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After returning from the war, he saw a need for affordable housing for returning veterans. America's post-war prosperity and baby boom had created a crisis of affordable housing. The Levitt family began and perfected their home construction techniques during World War II with contracts to build housing for the military on the East Coast. Following the war, they began to build subdivisions for returning veterans and their families. Their first major subdivision was in the community of Roslyn on Long Island which consisted of 2,250 homes.
In the early 1960s, the company built a 5,000-house community in north central New Jersey called Strathmore-at-Matawan. William earned a reputation as the person to see for high-end, custom homes on Long Island's North Shore, called the Gold Coast. Prior to World War II, Levitt & Sons built mostly upscale housing on and around Long Island, New York. During the 1930s, they built the North Strathmore community at Manhasset, New York, on the former Onderdonk farm. The Levitts built another 1,200 homes in Manhasset, Great Neck, and Westchester County.
Sociologist Herbert Gans' Defense of Suburbia
Even areas like Stuyvesant Town, Parkchester, and Addisleigh Park only accepted whites at first. In Levittown, Black veterans were unable to purchase homes, and the Levitts justified the clause by stating that it maintained the value of the properties, since most whites at the time preferred not to live in mixed communities. The Jewish Levitt barred Jews from Strathmore, his first pre-Levittown development on Long Island in New York, and he refused to sell his homes to African Americans. His sales contracts also forbade the resale of properties to blacks through restrictive covenants, although in 1957 a Jewish couple resold their house to the first black family to live in a Levitt home. Levitt's all-white policies also led to civil rights protests in Bowie, Maryland in 1963. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union opposed Levitt's racist policies, and the Federal Housing Administration prepared to refuse mortgages on his next Levittown.
In normal assembly lines, the workers stay stationary and the product moves down the line; in Levitt's homebuilding assembly line, the product—the houses—stayed in place and specialized workers moved from house to house. The building of every house was reduced to 26 steps, and sub-contractors were responsible for each step. Abraham Levitt and his two sons, William and Alfred, built four communities called “Levittowns” in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. Workers were paid very well for their labor, but the Levitts’ decision to not use union contractors for the construction led to picket lines. Every finished home was equipped with televisions and modern kitchens.
LEVITT BUILDING SYSTEMS, INC.B A T T L E C R E E K , M I.
Levittown was built on a mass-production basis, with standardization of house types and sizes, mass-produced building materials, and prefabricated components. Houses were built on a factory assembly-line basis, with small teams of workers moving from house to house as each stage of construction was completed. This method was inspired by the way that automobiles were being produced at the time. Levitt & Sons was sold to ITT in 1964 for a reported $90 million ($730 million today). The company continued to build housing developments as an ITT subsidiary, under a variety of names that usually included "Levitt".
Such discriminatory housing standards were consistent with government policies of the time. The Federal Housing Administration allowed developers to justify segregation within public housing. The FHA only offered mortgages to non-mixed developments which discouraged developers from creating racially integrated housing. Before the sale of Levittown homes began, the sales agents were aware that no applications from black families would be accepted.
Levittown: A Snapshot Of American History
Through government loan programs , new homeowners could buy a Levittown home with little or no down payment and since the house included appliances, it provided everything a young family could need. Best of all, the mortgage was often cheaper than renting an apartment in the city . Through the 1960s, the Levitts constructed houses in six Eastern states.
Each neighborhood had an elementary school, a pool, and a playground. The New Jersey version offered three different house types, including both a three and four bedroom model. House prices ranged from $11,500 to $14, virtually ensuring that most of the residents were of somewhat equal socioeconomic status .
Moving, improving, and everything in between.
They usually collaborate with other professionals like carpenters, architects, engineers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, etc, and work in a team with them on home projects. After he had built over 140,000 houses around the world, then 60-year-old Levitt sold the company to ITT for $92 million ($750 million today) in July 1967, of which $62 million was in the form of ITT stock. ITT made Levitt president of the renamed Levitt Corp., with a non-compete clause where Levitt could not found or be employed by another United States home building company for ten years. He entered the agreement thinking he would play an active role in ITT affairs, but executives felt Levitt was too old to take on more responsibility.
Therefore, many communities were advertised by section rather than by the overall community name. Thus, you would see ads for Somerset Park at Levittown, Country Club Ridge at Willingboro, Garfield Park North at Willingboro, Pointer Ridge Park at Belair Village, or Eden Hollow at Winslow Crossing. Some of the neighborhoods are detailed on this page only where the neighborhood of the larger community was advertised and marketed separately. Most of the individual sections of larger communities are detailed on the respective page for the overall community.
Only World War II veterans and their families were allowed to live in the house, which cost $6,990, with nearly no money down. Every house in Levittown had the same roof, siding, and other features. The Levitt family said it was the best house they had built in America. Residents first built the homes as if they were identical, and at times they walked into the wrong house because they couldn’t tell the difference. This meant that similar or identical homes could be built in a matter of minutes and at a lower cost.
This is the condensed version of the history of the Levitt companies. The details of the transfer of the companies--and there are many--can be seen in the Timeline on the Levitt and Sons page. In the postwar years, Levittown provided many families with affordable housing.
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