Levittown

Power point created by Robert L. Martinez

Primary Content Source: All the People, Joy Hakim
Images as cited.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cas/undergraduate/modules/am401/essays/levittown.jpg
http://www.kipaddotta.com/images/drive-in1.jpg

 Couples

had put off having children

during the WWII years, and now they
were making up for that. The U.S.
was having a baby boom.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattletim/2302914297/

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/B3G3.jpg

 The

WWII veterans had gone to

college under the G.I. Bill of Rights,
and the government paid for their
tuition.

http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/upload/thumb/e/e5/250px-Stamp-ctc-gibill.jpg

 By

the 50s, most of those veterans

were out of school, married, and
having children. Their college
degrees helped them find good
jobs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/raisingjadon/2477105212

 Those

new families needed places to

live, and, in America, every family
dreamed of a home of its own. But
there was a big housing shortage.
What to do?

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/B3G4.jp

 William

Levitt had a good idea.

Before the war, an average builder
might build two or three or, at most,
five houses a year.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

 Bill

Levitt was soon finishing 36

houses a day, which added up to
180 in every five-day week! How did
he do it?

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/home_window/window_levitt.jpg

 By

analyzing the building process,

dividing it into 27 steps, and
putting teams of people to work on
each step.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/new/Levittown%20house%20under%20c

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/H35P1.jpg

It was Henry Fords mass-production

idea applied to housing. A team did
the same task, over and over, moving
from house to house.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darren-moore/2178492050/

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

 There

were framers and roofers, tile

men and floor men, painters who did
all the white painting and others
who painted all the color.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darren-moore/2178492050/

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown.html

 If

anyone slowed down, it slowed

down the whole production process.
Bill Levitt made sure that didnt
happen.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22910776@N05/2806260557/

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/H31P1.jpg

 He

began producing his own nails

and making his own cement. He
even bought timberland in Oregon
and cut his own lumber. By doing all
that, he kept his house prices very
low.

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/new/Levittown%20house%20under%20const.gif

Levitt Lumber

Levitt Cement

 Levitt

knew that a lot of veterans

like himself would be looking for
homes after the war. So he bought a
huge potato field on Long Island,
New York.

http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/Levittown_house_1948_small.jpg

Levittown Site

http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown/building.html

 Those

fields soon became a

community called Levittown. Most
of Levitts houses had four and a
half rooms and were exactly alike.
They were sturdy, available, and a
great value.

http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/Levittown_as_built_small.jpg

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/one

 When

the first advertisement ran in

the New York Times, people began
lining up. In one day alone, Levitt
sold more than 1,400 houses.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/cas/undergraduate/modules/am401/essays/levittown.jpg

http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/images/lg_jpegs/H32P2.jpg

http://curriculum.union.edu/projects/tech/pics/prof/93_3.jpg

 Bill

Levitts ideas were soon copied

by other builders. The communities
they built were part of something
that was about to boom: suburbia.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/images3/levittown.jpg

 Suburbs,

on the outskirts of the

cities, were springing up around the
country.

http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/ekkmedia/renovo:-suburb

 As

people moved out of cities, often

poor people moved into their place.
Cities began losing some of their
most productive taxpayers. Cities
got poorer.

http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/pix/trucks/b_shantz/flood_cafe/williams_moving_ih_april60.jpg

 In

the new suburbs, where there was

no mass transportation, cars and
highways became important.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/califdreama/1922864001/