Term Papers on William Levitt

Term Paper Title	William Levitt
# of Words	741
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	2.96

William Levitt

As the roads became larger and because they provided much more direct and
accessible routes to cities, people had more options about where to live. The
construction of Levittowns across the country exemplified another regularization
phenomenon partially resulting from the interstate system. William Levitt, the
mastermind behind the plan, bought thousands of acres of land outside cities
such as New York and Philadelphia. On these vast stretches of property, Levitt
organized the construction of entire towns. Construction of the roads induced
the construction of suburbs and “suburbia,” such as Levittown, (originally
called “Island Trees”) which drastically influenced the culture and social
expectancies of the 1950s.

Construction started in the late 1940s with the passage of the GI Bill to aid
the soldiers returning from home. The increase of men coming home led to a
serious housing shortage and the GI Bill provided money for housing as well as
education. The need was so great Cape Cod and Ranch homes on Levitt's plots went
up in a single day. Contractors merely reconstructed the prefabricated houses.
With the help of Levitt, the baby boomers formed communities of these Cape Cod
and Ranch houses winding along on roads with a village green that served as the
central part of town. All of the homes looked similar, but it did not matter to
the residents, satisfied and content to just have a house.

William Levitt promoted his construction well and people bought the homes
before he built them. Homes within a community represented the ideal set up for
the returning veterans and their families. These people wanted an appropriate
place to start their new post-war life. By the 1950s and the end of the Korean
War, a strong nationalistic and patriotic fever swept the country. It all
culminated in a desire for the “blessings” of life - a happy family, a
pleasant house, a job, and the materialistic benefits that came along. As the
first planned community in the United States, Levittown provided all these
things and helped to define the middle class American life. It was the
stereotypical 1950s community with mowed, green grass and happy nuclear
families. Levittown, Long Island represented the quintessential auto age suburb,
what with the largest entirely white community in the United States. Most of its
70,000 residents held federally guaranteed mortgages.

But similar to the contradictions presented by other architectural
d...

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