Editing Levittown

{{Short description|1950s housing developments in the United States}}
{{confused|Leviton}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2021}}
[[Image:LevittownPA.jpg|thumb|right|Aerial view of [[Levittown, Pennsylvania]] {{circa|1959}}|222x222px]]
'''Levittown''' is the name of several large [[suburb]]an housing developments created in the United States (including one in [[Puerto Rico]]) by [[William Levitt|William J. Levitt]] and his company [[Levitt & Sons]]. Built after [[World War II]] for returning white [[veteran]]s and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Veterans Administration]] and the [[Federal Housing Administration]] (FHA) guaranteed builders that qualified veterans could buy housing for a fraction of rental costs. Under Levitt & Sons, Levittown housing would maintain [[Covenant (law)#Exclusionary covenants|racial covenants]] that excluded non-Caucasian homeowners.

The first Levittown house 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 single-family dwellings, Levittowns provided private meeting areas, swimming pools, public parks, and recreational facilities.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/466379549|title=Handbook to life in America. Volume VIII, Postwar America, 1950 to 1969|date=2009|publisher=Facts on File|others=Rodney P. Carlisle|isbn=978-1-4381-2699-9|location=New York, NY|oclc=466379549}}</ref>

Production was modeled on [[assembly line]]s in 27 steps with construction workers trained to perform one step. A house could be built in one day, with 36 workers, when effectively scheduled.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1953|title=A City is Born - Levittown, PA.|url=https://video-alexanderstreet-bc.orc.scoolaid.net/watch/a-city-is-born-levittown-pa|access-date=2022-02-19|website=ProQuest Alexander Street|quote=The building of a house in one day is shown during the next 45 seconds by stop-motion photography. These are the 36 men who built this house. Another day, another 40 houses. This is one of four models, which are now being built throughout Levittown. The complete price is $10,500.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=The Fifties|url=https://www.learner.org/series/a-biography-of-america/the-fifties/|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Annenberg Learner|language=en-US}}</ref> This enabled quick and economical production of similar or identical houses with rapid recovery of costs. Standard Levittown houses included a [[Picket fence|white picket fence]], green lawns, and modern appliances. Sales in the original Levittown began in March 1947. 1,400 houses were purchased during the first three hours.

The houses were, by later standards, bare bones: {{convert|750|sqft|sqm|abbr=on}}, with no basement or porch.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1991/02/living-smaller/306205/ | title=Living Smaller | work=The Atlantic | date=February 1991 | accessdate=December 22, 2023 | author=Rybczynski, Witold}}</ref>

==Places==

* [[Levittown, New York]] – the first Levittown (built 1947–1951)
* [[Levittown, Pennsylvania]] – the second Levittown (1952–1958)
* [[Willingboro Township, New Jersey]] – originally and colloquially known as Levittown (started 1958)
* [[Levittown, Puerto Rico]] (1963)
* [[Bowie, Maryland]] (Belair at Bowie) (1964)
* [[Greenbriar, Virginia]] (1966-1971)

== Gallery ==

{{multiple image
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| image1 = Levittown houses. LOC gsc.5a25985.tif
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| image2 = Levittown houses. LOC gsc.5a25986 (cropped).jpg
| image3 = Levittown_houses._LOC_gsc.5a25989.jpg
| footer = Levittown houses in New York in 1958
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== Controversy ==

William J. Levitt refused to sell Levittown houses to people of color. The FHA included racial covenants in each deed when authorizing Levitttown loans, making each Levittown a [[Residential_segregation_in_the_United_States|segregated community]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rothstein |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rothstein |url=https://archive.org/details/coloroflawforgot0000roth/ |title=The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America |date=May 2, 2017 |publisher=Liveright |isbn=978-1-63149-286-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/coloroflawforgot0000roth/page/82/ 82-83]}}</ref> However this did not affect who the houses were resold to.

In 1957, William and [[Daisy Myers]] bought a second-hand house at 43 Deepgreen Lane in Pennsylvania's Levittown. William was a World War II army veteran and Daisy was a school teacher. The couple had three young children at the time. Attacks began immediately in the previously all-white neighborhood.<ref name=":0" /> For days, members of the community would gather hundreds at a time outside the Myers' home in violent demonstrations. Townspeople formed a group called the "Levittown Betterment Committee", dedicated to evicting the Myers and making Levittown all white once more. They would meet in a nearby home, which they dubbed "The [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] House." The [[Modern display of the Confederate battle flag|Confederate flag]] flew outside and "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]" was blasted on repeat from a record player.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Remembering the Battle to Integrate Levittown |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/remembering-the-battle-to-integrate-levittown |access-date=2025-02-01 |website=Jewish Currents |language=en}}</ref>  

The Myers' struggle gained national attention. The [[Quakers]], [[American Jewish Congress]], and the William Penn Center helped organize a 24-7 citizen patrol. White couples volunteered to babysit the Myers’ children and cleaned up damage in wake of attacks. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and other black civil rights leader met with the family and wrote to them. <ref name=":1" />

The couple managed to stay four years more, until William Myers got a job in [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania|Harrisburg]], Pennsylvania.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=25 July 2019|title=Trailblazers: The Story of the Myers Family in Levittown, Pennsylvania|newspaper=The Daily Beast|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/trailblazers-the-story-of-the-myers-family-in-levittown-pennsylvania}}</ref> Their plight helped lead to the passage of the [[Fair Housing Act]] in 1968.

==See also==

* [[Redlining]]
* [[White flight]]

==References==

{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Levittown| ]]
[[Category:History of veterans' affairs in the United States]]
[[Category:Mass production]]
[[Category:Planned communities in the United States]]
[[Category:Planned residential developments]]
[[Category:Veterans' settlement schemes]]