William Levitt

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William Jaird Levitt (February 11, 1907 - January 28, 1994) was an American real-estate developer widely credited as the father of modern American suburbia. While he didn't invent the building of communities of affordable single-family homes within driving distance of major areas of employment, his innovations in providing affordable housing popularized this type of planned community in the years following World War II.[1]

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[edit] Background

Levitt comes from a Jewish family which was originally from Russia and Austria [1]. As President of Levitt & Sons, the real-estate development company founded by his father Abraham Levitt near the start of the Great Depression, William Levitt oversaw all aspects of the company except for the designs of the homes they built. Design duties were handled by William's brother Alfred.

Prior to World War II, Levitt & Sons built mostly upscale housing on and around Long Island, New York. After returning from the war, during which he served in the Navy as a lieutenant in the Seabees, William Levitt saw a need for affordable housing for the returning veterans.

[edit] Construction of Levittown, New York

Levitt & Sons chose an area known as Island Trees near Hempstead, Long Island as the site for its huge building project after the war. The Company named it Levittown. Levitt's innovation in creating this planned community was to build the houses in the manner of an assembly line.[1] In normal assembly lines, the workers stay stationary and the product moves down the line. In Levitt's homebuilding assembly line, the product (houses) obviously could not move. Residents started moving into Levittown, New York in 1947. Houses sold for between $8,000 and $12,000 with monthly payments as low as $57, a low price even by 1947 standards. The residents would come to be known as Levittowners.

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[edit] Other Levittown projects

Levitt went on to plan and build another community of more than 17,000 homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which saw its first residents in 1952. Willingboro, New Jersey was originally built as a Levittown, and bears several Levittown-specific street names such as Levitt Parkway. Levittown, Puerto Rico, built in the 1960s, was also one of Levitt's projects.

During the late 1950s, Levitt and Sons also developed the community known as "Belair at Bowie," in Bowie, Maryland. In 1957 they acquired the historic Belair Mansion and estate, home of Maryland's colonial Governor Samuel Ogle and his Belair Stables.[2] In 1959 the community was annexed by Bowie. He also built in Palm Coast, Florida, Richmond, Virginia and Fairfax, Virginia. Also, in the early 1960s, the company built a 5000 house community in north central New Jersey called Strathmore-at-Matawan. The Strathmore name had originally been used by Levitt & Sons in its upper middle class developments on Long Island in the 1930s.

Levitt & Sons was sold to ITT International Telephone and Telegraph in 1968 for a reported $90 million. Levitt subsequently lost much of his wealth in unsuccessful investments.

[edit] Timeline

[edit] References

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 This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (April 2008)
  1. ^ a b Time Magazine 200 important in the 20th century
  2. ^ Baltz, Shirley Vlasak (1984). A Chronicle of Belair. Bowie, Maryland: Bowie Heritage Committee. pp. 84–88. 

[edit] External links

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