Preview

Essay On Levittown

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
438 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Levittown
Throughout the course of time, the contraction of Levittown reshaped the land of suburbia. Before Levittown even existed, people have been appealed to the characters of living beyond the noise, pollution, overcrowding and disease of the city, while still close enough to enjoy the benefits of its industrial and cultural vitality. After World War II, suburbia conjures visions of traditional family life, idyllic domesticity and stability. In 1947, as more houses within this planned community of Levittown were built, the less room people had. Through various changes to the American’s ideal style house, Levittown changed the landscape of suburbia to occupy more people. After World War II, people experience a few shortcomings from their original idea of living in the suburbs. During this time, advertisers for suburban developments emphasized the green, open spaces of the suburbs and hinted buyers would find a sense of peace and tranquility unattainable in city life. William Levit taking advantage of this built “150 houses a day in the potato fields of central Long Island… until more than 17,000 nearly identical four-room “Cape-Cod” boxes stood in Levittown, as the agglomeration was made” (Kunstler, 104) For many families, Levittown was the best option for many families considering a vast amount of the population unable to find any suitable shelters. Levittown consisted of thousands of identical houses …show more content…
Thousands of Americans’ followed one another in their migration to suburbia. Levittown encompassed a multitude of pull factors that urged more people to move to the suburbs. The Levitts homes were cheaper, as well as larger than those in other places, offered amenities and appliances, and gave a sense of tranquility to the homeowners. The Levitts construction of houses and streets resulted in changes to the landscape within

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The next section of the chapter discusses the killing of the LA River. There was a desire and need for flood control, and people also thought that this would create jobs during the depression era. The army corps of engineers was given the go-ahead to change the river into a series of sewers and flood control devices, and in the same period the Santa Monica Bay was nearly wiped out as well by dumping of sewage and irrigation. Next, “Battle of the Valley” discusses the creation of an alternate urbanism with medium density groups of bungalows and garden apartments. The Channel Heights Project was seen as the model democratic community that could be the answer to post war housing needs. San Fernando Valley was to be the first battlefield for old landscape versus new development. Government housing eventually destroyed the agricultural periphery.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    suburbs, or banlieues, and the debate on whether or not those communities are the birthplace of…

    • 209 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Until quite recently, the suburbs had not played a central or often even an explicit role in the historical analysis of southern politics and society since World War II.”(p.692)…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Flemingdon Park is located in the North York region of Toronto. It is home to approximately 22,000 residents mainly from foreign places. This collective population accounts for approximately 0.8% of Toronto’s total population. This paper will thoroughly cover the diverse demographics of Toronto’s “Apartment City.” The conclusions will be drawn through strategically chosen features of the community’s demographics in relation to planning principles. Aspects that will be touched upon will include; age, gender, ethnicity/immigration and income in reference to dwelling types. By exploring such facets of the community, one will be able to depict the demographics of Flemingdon Park, thus the planning ideals as well. Furthermore, these numbers will then allow us to make a comparison between the City of Toronto as a whole and Flemingdon as a region. Careful analysis and interpretation of these sets of data will lead to a further understanding of Flemingdon and its social and developmental components. This information will give insight into the methodology and reasoning behind specific planning decisions. We will begin this study by examining the age groups within the neighbourhood, and then strategically progress and conclude with more specific findings with reference from Statistics Canada.…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This family decided that in order to solve the housing problem, and in order to make the most profit, construction needed to be made more efficient. They created “Levittowns”, where every house was set up on a cookie cutter plot, and every house was identical to the others. In this way, they could minimize the amount of time required to make a new house, and they could sell them in large quantities. They also set up an assembly line technique of assembling houses in parts. Each man had his own job, and many parts of the house were constructed previously and then brought on site to be put up. The Levitt family also put verticle integration to use, by making their own concrete, their own lumber, etc. Through all of this, they were able to build affordable houses both quickly and cheaply. Once completed, these homes were available for sale to Vets and their…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suburban neighborhoods provided the safe haven of what seemed to be an endless playground for the Doris and her friends. Every piece of Doris's upbringing, though she may not have known it, were directly related to the larger forces that would later be written in history books. Doris's family "[were] early pioneers of the vast postwar migration which was to transform America into a nation of suburbs." (Goodwin 55) This is not just the case with Doris's upbringing but applies to every person, even to this day.…

    • 1290 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before we discuss why cities are cleaner than suburbs, we must first acknowledge how sprawl began and what made Americans fall in love with suburban lifestyle. According to Glaeser, it is largely due to public policies in the late twentieth century (193). Our government made a mistake by restricting developments in urban centers and encouraging new developments outside of cities. It caused the cost of living in cities to skyrocket, and people got pushed out to suburbs for cheaper housing (191). When there is a large supply of housing built in a particular region, its price of housing becomes affordable. People respond well to this elastic housing supply by moving to into such area to benefit from cheaper housing, and this is how American suburbanization began (190). The emergence of inexpensive automobiles accelerated suburbanization, since people were able to enjoy living in trees and…

    • 1589 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Levittown Research Paper

    • 6166 Words
    • 25 Pages

    Kirp, David L., John P. Dwyer, and Larry A. Rosenthal. Our Town: Race, Housing, and the Soul of Suburbia. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995.…

    • 6166 Words
    • 25 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    suburbia

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages

    During this time, the so-called baby boom was in full effect. Due to this fact, the housing market soared and suburbia was well on its way. Communities were developed by companies such as The Irvine Company and American Nevada Corporation. Just like in the series “Weeds”, the suburbs are the product of this demand. The developers masterminded cookie cutter homes that looked alike in every aspect and catered to single family dwellers. These types of residences were “well-manicured developments…”(Guterson 158) that David Guterson talks about in his paper, "No Place Like Home.”…

    • 988 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Levittown

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The story of The Myers and the Wechsler families is a social commentary of America at the time. A time of differing views on collision courses toward one another. The tale of Levittown is one of the American spirit in its most heroic forms and its most villainous depths. It is overall a story of personal struggle of the civil rights movement rather than a history of events which happened with facts and statistics, this book entails the personal struggles and allows an individual to understand the struggle at a personal level.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suburban America Promise

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The purpose of the documentary was to talk about the issues and opportunities that are affecting the individuals who live in suburban cities throughout the United States of America. They filmed this documentary in a wide range of suburban locations from Chicago Illinois, Long Island New York, Minneapolis Minnesota, Denver Colorado, Orange County California, and Cleveland Ohio. All of these locations have very different cultures surrounding the suburban cities but at the same time they all face the same challenges like public transportation, water sanitation, and segregation of the suburban communities. The main message that the director wants to get across to the audience is how suburban areas…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    During the late 1940s and throughout the 50s, many city-dwelling Americans were compelled to move to the suburbs, driven by a desire to forge a new and more comfortable lifestyle for their families. After World War Two, cities had become overcrowded as veterans returned and sought to purchase homes of their own. The implementation of the interstate highway system, coupled with the undertakings of developers to build new communities offering more affordable housing ensured suburban growth. As new communities began to sprout up all over the country, however, it became apparent that the promise of a relaxing life in the suburbs was not made to everyone. Restrictive racial covenants barring African…

    • 4786 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suburbia became popular and got rushed by people. For selling more houses and to make…

    • 2812 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What drives gentrification? (2014). This article is based on a speech at a recent ISO forum in Brooklyn, New York addressing the roots of gentrification and it responded on how residents of big cities everywhere face the effects of gentrification, as long-time residents are pushed out of neighborhoods due to rising rents and housing costs and other changes. The author provided an objective analysis from the perspective of the working class of New York and of all other cities undergoing gentrification by examining what appears to be two contradictory outcomes of gentrification: the "improvement" of a neighborhood on the one hand and the displacement of its long-time residents on the other. Flores also analyzed the misconception between geographers David Levy whose theory explains gentrification as flowing from the consumer preferences of a new, youthful, white-collar middle class that wishes to change from a suburban to an urban lifestyle and Late Neil Smith counterposes Levy 's theory with a class perspective by contrasting the owners of capital intent on gentrifying and developing a neighborhood having a lot more "consumer’s choice" about which neighborhoods they want to devour, and the kind of housing and other facilities they produce for the rest of us to…

    • 1820 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Essay On The Truman Show

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Stereotypical vision of American suburbia – the classic ‘American Dream’ – to sell it to their audiences as a form of reality…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays