Levittown, NY: Birthplace of suburbia

I had no idea that the model for what we know as modern suburbia originated in Long Island, NY.

Levittown in Nassau County, New York is the brain-child of William J. Levitt of Levitt & Sons Inc.. Beginning in 1947, the town was one of the first to manufacture mass-produced, low-cost housing (originally marketed towards veterans of World War II).

In order to effectively build lots of houses in a very short period of time, Levitt & Sons Inc. basically had every house built from a cookie-sheet design. This meant that most of the materials were pre-cut, delivered, and immediately used in pre-determined house plans. In a very real sense, Levittown was a running factory churning out house after house in record time.

Each house [originally] had two bedrooms, measured 750 square feet and sat on 1/7th of an acre lots that were 60 feet wide. They had no garage, no basement, and an unfinished second floor. The photo above shows just a small section of this town in 1948 shortly after it was completed.

The New York Times has a slideshow of photos showing how the cookie-cutter houses in Levittown have changed — and gotten bigger — over the years.

If you want some more information, you can visit the website of the Levittown Historical Society or read up on it and see more old photos here. Man, Levittown is basically everything I would imagine a 1950’s housing community would be like!