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William J. Levitt played a major role in shaping the way many Americans live today. He was the largest homebuilder in the world in the 1950s and 1960s and is widely considered the father of the modern American suburb.
After World War II, millions of soldiers returning to the United States needed housing for their families. Levitt took the mass-production techniques Henry Ford pioneered for cars and applied those cost-cutting tactics to homebuilding. His company, Levitt & Sons, was able to build tens of thousands of homes quickly and at affordable prices.
鈥淣o one was able to build at the scale that Levitt did,鈥� said Edward Berenson, a professor of history at New York University and the author of 鈥淧erfect Communities: Levitt, Levittown, and the Dream of White Suburbia.鈥�
Before World War II, about 40% of American families owned homes. By the 1960s, that number was about 65%. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge increase, and it was all in the suburbs,鈥� Berenson said. 鈥淸Levitt] really played a major role in a gigantic social, cultural and economic change in the 20th century, and that is suburbanization.鈥�
Levitt built several Levittowns in the United States, Puerto Rico and Europe. In the original Levittown, New York, he built 17,447 houses in four years.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of houses. They were small and rudimentary,鈥� Berenson said. 鈥淏ut they鈥檝e lasted.鈥�
One Levitt community was built in Prince George鈥檚 County called Belair at Bowie.
In 1947, a family could buy one of Levitt鈥檚 homes for around $7,000, which works out to just over $100,000 today. If you go onto Zillow and look up the prices of homes in Levittown, New York, the median price is about $700,000.
Levitt sold the idea of the American dream a house with a yard in a safe neighborhood with community resources. He set aside land for schools, churches, synagogues and ball fields to 鈥渃reate a community spirit and allow people to get together.鈥� Berenson said he can speak from personal experience because he grew up in Levittown, Pennsylvania. He has positive memories of playing, swimming and biking with other children.
鈥淚t was a safe community, and people felt confident giving their kids a lot of freedom,鈥� Berenson said. 鈥淚 interviewed lots of people who grew up in the different Levittowns, and they all say the same thing. They have an experience that is a lot like the one I had.鈥�
However, Levitt faced criticism for conformity and exclusion. Levittowns had a negative reputation because 鈥渢he houses were all the same, and they supposedly made everyone the same.鈥�
Levitt also refused to sell his homes to African Americans. When an African American family moved into Levittown, Pennsylvania, in 1957, there were race riots that lasted for more than a week.
鈥淭he really worst thing about Levitt was his policies on race,鈥� Berenson said.
His personal story follows a rags-to-riches-to-rags narrative. He was one of the richest people in the world when he sold his company in the late 1960s for almost $100 million, but he made bad investments and spent lavishly.
鈥淲hen he finally got back into homebuilding in the 1980s, he committed a lot of fraud,鈥� Berenson said. 鈥淗e took deposits from people and used those deposits to support his really extravagant lifestyle.鈥�
That included a yacht, a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a mini castle on Long Island.
鈥淗e died in the 鈥�90s as a charity patient in one of the hospitals he helped to build,鈥� Berenson said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 why people have forgotten about him.鈥� Levitt鈥檚 star rose quickly but then burned out.
In his book, Berenson said he tried to present a full, nuanced and complex picture of a man who changed the way Americans live and whose influence is still prominent today.
鈥淗istory is complicated, and so you have to take the good with the bad,鈥� he said. 鈥淸People] should know about one of the most important figures in the 20th century, William J. Levitt.鈥�
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