Levittowns

Levittown, Long Island

The first Levittown was built in the hamlet of Island Trees on Long Island; construction began in late spring of 1947. The first 2,000 houses were completed and occupied in October. During the next year, an additional 4,000 houses would be added to the subdivision. All of the first 6,000 houses were Cape Cods, a style that the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) had approved for funding under its programs. All were rental units and rented for $52 per month, which was roughly 1 week's pay for the target constituency, who had an income of between $2,500 and $3,000 per year.

The platform-framed houses were a reduction of the middle-class house of the prewar period to an affordable minimum: a 750-square-foot, four-room house with a kitchen and living room, a single bath, and two bedrooms. The unfinished attic could be converted into two additional bedrooms. Every house came equipped with basic, construction-grade kitchen appliances, enameled-metal cabinets, a refrigerator, and stove. In addition, the builder included a washing machine. The floor plan was based on four-foot units, which capitalized on the rising availability of standardized components in drywall, windows, and plywood. Other economies were based on technologies developed during the war for military housing, such as asbestos siding, asphalt tiles, and latex paint. The houses were set on concrete slab bases with radiant heating provided by in-the-floor hot water coils. This innovation required a modification of the local building ordinance, which was granted. Levitt also requested permission to substitute 5/16 in. plywood for the traditional 3/4 in. sheathing. This modification was not approved until after the completion of the Island Trees development.

The construction at Levittown altered the traditional relationship between worker and product and attempted to bring the construction industry into the industrial age by treating the houses and the workers according to the principles of an assembly line. The building process, which Levitt called the “on-site factory,” was broken up into some 30 operations, each of which was a complete entity for which a work crew was trained. Like the inverse of the factory assembly line, the crews moved from house to house, completing a single operation before moving on to repeat it at the next site.

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