William Levitt: The father of suburbia
William Jaird Levitt (February 11th, 1907- January 28, 1994) was an American real-estate developer in the 1950s and 60s. He is often hailed as the father of modern suburbia as a result of his large-scale post-war Levittown neighborhoods in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Levitt was born into a Jewish-American family in New York and under his father entered the home building business in the 1920s and 30s. After returning home from World War II he noticed the shortage of homes and used his knowledge of mass-production structures from the Seabees to begin planning a large scale community on Long Island, New York. This became the first Levittown, and was a massive success. Homes sold out in hours after being made available, and Levitt gained much notoriety.
However, he was unsatisfied with the New York community, feeling he could do better. So, for the release of the 1952 Levittown in Pennsylvania Levitt planned tirelessly every aspect of the region. Large scale planning for placement of community pools, churches, schools, and shopping centers was a central focus. In order to ensure perfection, even the landscaping and paint colors of every home were personally designated by Levitt. As a result the community was seen as a model of the American Dream, and continues to stand as his legacy to the beginning of the American suburb.
Levitt embodied the following tropes:
- Ambiguously Jewish: Levitt was Jewish, but did not make it a big point when addressing the public. He actually barred Jews from buying homes in one of his early suburbs...
- Cut-and-Paste Suburb: To keep costs down, Levitt used only a few models, resulting in this.
- Suburbia: The first large scale developer in the U.S. and ultimately the catalyst for many more neighborhoods.
- Stepford Suburbia: Levittown was eerily perfect for some few years after it was built. Nowadays, due to rampant home renovations, this has decreased substantially.
