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    Levittown
    Levittown
    Levittown
    Ebook180 pages43 minutes

    Levittown

    By Richard Wagner and Amy Duckett Wagner

    ()

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    About this ebook

    In 1951, Levittown was created in Bucks County outside of Philadelphia by builder pioneers Levitt and Sons. Dubbed the largest and "most perfectly planned" community in America, it featured single-family homes, schools, churches, shopping centers, and swimming pools. A symbol of the "American Dream," Levittown defined the phenomenon of post-World War II suburban developments, which for the first time gave working- and middle-class families the option of affordable, detached houses outside congested urban neighborhoods. Levittown was a melting pot, attracting people from cities, rural areas, and all walks of life, including many World War II veterans with young families. Houses came fully equipped with appliances and landscaping and started at $9,000. Levittown's superb collection of history and photographs illustrates the birth and growth of this unique area, explores the community that resulted, and features residents' personal memories of the golden years.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439623695
    Levittown
    Author

    Richard Wagner

    Richard Wagner is the former editor of Ad Astra, the journal of the National Space Society. He lives in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

    Read more from Richard Wagner

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      Book preview

      Levittown - Richard Wagner

      Library.

      INTRODUCTION

      The landmark town, Levittown, Pennsylvania, was built from 1951 to December 1957 by developer Levitt and Sons, whose front man was William J. Levitt. The community covered 22 square miles and over 5,500 acres in lower Bucks County. At the time, it was the largest suburban planned community in the United States. Levitt and Sons built 17,311 single-family homes, and the community plan also included churches, schools, swimming pools, and shopping centers.

      Levittown is an unincorporated community founded in 1952 as a low-cost housing development targeted for World War II veterans in southeast Pennsylvania near the Delaware River northeast of Philadelphia. The name Levittown has come to symbolize the U.S. post–World War II suburban phenomenon, which first gave middle-class families the option of inexpensive, single-unit housing outside urban neighborhoods.

      In the early years, Levittown was inhabited by over 70,000 residents, mostly World War II veterans and their young families. They came from Philadelphia, New Jersey, and upstate Pennsylvania to realize the American Dream of owning a single-family home with a yard in Levittown. The houses cost from just under $9,000 to $17,990, fully equipped and landscaped.

      Levittown houses were easy to buy, requiring only $100 down. For veterans, a Levittowner model was offered for no money down. Home owners paid around $60 a month in VA or FHA mortgage payment. It was the birth of modern suburbia—affordable homes for ordinary people. Levittown’s population in 2000 was 55,362, according to the U.S. Census numbers.

      Abraham Levitt was keenly interested in landscaping and horticulture. Levitt and Sons planned everything out—right down to the flower beds—supplying each new resident with a home owner’s guide with detailed instructions on the care of lawn, plants, and shrubs since many of the new home owners, who came from the cities, were unfamiliar with lawn and plant care. When completed, Levittown homes had more than 400,000 plantings, and it is estimated that Levitt and Sons spent over $8 million on landscaping. Below, the authors describe their own Levittown experiences. Rich explains:

      My parents, Dick and Betty Wagner, left Northeast Philly for Levittown in 1957. They bought a Country Clubber model on Sycamore Drive in the Snowball Gate section. Dad was a Navy vet and a machinist by trade. My mother was a master glassblower, a homemaker, and later a substitute teacher. My mother’s sister Jean and her husband also moved to Levittown, buying a Jubilee model on Canoebirch Road in the Cobalt Ridge section.

      My Aunt Jean taught kindergarten at the Walter Miller and Samuel Everitt Elementary

      Schools. I was born in Lower Bucks Hospital in 1959, grew up on Sycamore Road in the

      Snowball Gate section, and rarely left Levittown for any reason further than a day trip to

      the Jersey Shore until I went away to college. I think it is fair to say that Levittown was my

      whole world for my first 18 years. And what a wonderful world it was.

      —Rich Wagner Snowball Gate and Neshaminy High class of 1977

      Amy explains:

      I’m happy to report that all of my relatives were attracted to Levittown in the 1950s. So I’m proud to say Levittown is my hometown; my parents still live in their original house. I feel lucky to be a part of this great social experiment, a successful one at that. Levittown offered us kids such a wonderful place to grow up. My dad’s parents, the Ducketts, came first from central Pennsylvania (Clearfield) and bought a Rancher in the North Park section. His sister and new husband relocated too, buying in Red Cedar Hill.

      My dad lived in North Park at 47 Narcissus Lane with his parents after graduating from

      Penn State. He worked in the office at U.S. Steel, where he met my mother, a summer worker

      about to graduate from Kutztown State. Mom’s parents had moved from Gary, Indiana, when

      my grandfather transferred with U.S. Steel to open the new Fairless Works, and they lived

      first in Fairless Hills.

      Before long, mom and dad were engaged, married, and had bought a Jubilee model in the

      newly built Twin Oaks section, both becoming teachers. By the time I came along (at Lower

      Bucks Hospital in 1962), my mom’s parents had left Fairless Hills to buy a nice Colonial

      across the creek from us in Twin Oaks on Tweed Road. Although I took it for granted when

      I was young, it was

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