How many houses did levitt build

Alfred Levitt created the mass production techniques and designed the homes and the layout of the development, with its curving streets. Abraham directed the landscaping, whose focus was two trees to each front yard, all planted exactly the same distance apart.

William was the financier and promoter, who persuaded lawmakers to rewrite the laws that made Levittown possible. The houses, which were in the Cape Cod and ranch house styles, sat on a seventh-of-an-acre lot. They had square feet with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen, an unfinished second floor, and no garage. To mass produce the houses, the company broke the construction process down into 27 operations.

Specialized teams repeated each operation at each building site. Twenty acres formed an assembly point, where cement was mixed and lumber cut. Trucks delivered parts and material to homesites placed 60 feet apart. Then carpenters, tilers, painters, and roofers arrived in sequence. One team used white paint, another red. One worker's only duty was to bolt washing machines to floors.

The Levitts built up to houses a week when most builders were constructing four or five homes a year. Levitt revolutionized the home construction industry by sifting through outdated building codes and union rules and using new technologies to get quality building jobs completed quickly and cheaply.

To save money on lumber, the Levitts bought forests and built a sawmill in Oregon. They purchased appliances directly from the manufacturer, cutting out the middleman. They even made their own nails. When the Levitt homes went on the market in March , eager buyers lined up to purchase them. On the first day, Levitt sold 1, homes. The success of Levittown depended on huge government assistance.

The Veterans Administration VA provided buyers with low-interest mortgages to purchase those houses; thus, the risk to lenders was small. Levittown later became racially mixed, but for years Levitt's sales contracts forbade resale to African Americans. He once offered to build a separate development for blacks but refused to integrate his white Levitt developments.

Levitt and Sons built 15 other projects throughout Long Island. In , they brought their mass production operation to Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

After that development was completed in , Levitt went to Delaware and constructed a 12,home Willingboro, New Jersey project. Relations among the Levitt family fell apart in after Alfred divorced his wife to marry a year-old fashion model he met on a trip to Paris. The brothers split their business affairs in Alfred developed Queens apartment complexes and Suffolk housing developments.

He died in , at the age of He quickly changed tactics, branching out to Chicago, Washington, D. Levitt reduced the scale of projects, dabbled in townhouses, delegated authority and decentralized management.

He posted a 20 percent average annual increase in sales into the late s. Shingles covered the outer walls. For a little variety, the houses were painted all different colors, including yellow, red and blue. Bob Koenig, vice president of the Levittown Historical Society, said many of the houses were altered to match the needs of growing families and replace deterioration.

The Weber House, built in , is the main example. It has one notable exterior alteration — the siding was changed from shingles to aluminum, because the original red-colored shingles had turned black. Real Estate Technology Cars Columns. But, it got you that brand new clothes dryer, and eliminated the need to do the laundry based on the rain forecasts, or to hang the wash upstairs inside the unfinished attic in the middle of frigid New England winters.

Thanks for expanding on the discrimination question. I have no insight into how much the Levitts lacked freedom to choose their discrimination policies. Regarding the s controversies over discrimination that the author mentions, my impression is that it was more of an issue in Levittown, PA, than in first Levittown on Long Island.

My recollection of the s is that public figures generally seemed eager to portray themselves as anticommunist patriots. Regarding dryers, many suburbs today have restrictive covenants banning backyard clotheslines.

The original Levittown Cape Cod designs had a Bendix washing machine in the tiny kitchen with very little floor space for the owner to add an electric dryer!

As for the Bendix washers, I always thought they were something of a unique brand, as their later higher grade models combined the functions of washer and dryer into one machine! Not sure which carries more weight.

I nave been looking at house plans at developments in Wales glad to see they are including closets now. If so, what have they been using up until now? The old fashioned wooden wardrobes and chifrobes? I remember when a black family wanted to move in , someone went around with a petition and my dad would not sign it. Good for your Dad! Obviously, a petition to STOP them from moving in. What else could it be, given the subject matter that has already been covered?

What are you — 12? Reading comprehension — work on that, will ya? Why do you have a problem with questions? You work on that. This is an open forum; my views may be different from yours. You are not here to police all posts and assure they are all in sync with yours. His hands were not tied. You are making excuses for a racist. Why would they?

My parents did not discuss terms of their mortgage with their children; when we were children or adults. Again, why would they? I have no doubt plenty of people in those communities had no issues with that clause. If Levitt had decided to be a Social reformer at the time instead of a housing developer, he would have had NO sales whatsoever. Banks, savings and loans, etc. Yes, it was written into the contracts, in very clear, non- mistakable black and white, in every housing development of the day.

The banks and other lenders required it. They would not make loans to people of color in that time, and made that extremely clear, so that IT would be extremely clear in any court in the land.

Ahhh Shari. No need though. There is nothing wrong with me pointing out racism no matter the era or Government. Thanks for that education. Nowhere did I say YOU definitely said…and it was well within context. My family moved into our Levittown home in I enjoyed meeting new friends and how the neighbors worked together as neighbors. The yards were still dirt and the streets were cement and the construction workers were still constructing homes in nearby neighborhoods.

When our family drove around looking at the variety of styles I noticed the workers. Later in life I received original photos of different workers building Levittown,Pa which shows Levittown homes being built and this example.

So black people helped build communities they were forbade to live in…and? As is true all over the country. Asbestos roofs! They were apparently better quality to everyone involved — those who lived under them, who made them, who made loans on or insured the homes they were installed on, because they were fireproof. This was an extremely important feature to homeowners all the way back to the early twenties who had been living in homes prior to that with wooden shingle roofs and open flame heat sources, where a few good sparks from the chimney picked up by the wind could land them on any nearby roof, including the home it came from of course, and begin a raging house fire.

More houses were lost that way than most any other in those times. Combined with certain types of cement and coloring materials, it could become home siding, with which the original Levittown homes were sided. Yes, that asbestos. Yes, I know all about that stuff. This response alone was interesting, thank you. That is, minus the last sentence.

I never said you Shari do not know about the risks of asbestos. No, you never said that, but I was not addressing you specifically in the last bit, but also anyone and everyone else who could read my answer. The problem here is the unqualified lack of expression of several factors most important in interpersonal communications. The things that are difficult if not impossible to include in written communications.