{"id":572,"date":"2018-04-02T17:22:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T17:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/?p=572"},"modified":"2018-04-07T04:12:21","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T04:12:21","slug":"levittown-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/2018\/04\/02\/levittown-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Levittown timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- iframe plugin v.4.5 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/cdn.knightlab.com\/libs\/timeline3\/latest\/embed\/index.html?source=14leK5mav6AXJOgUzvLuJzPQhnw2KF_yekweNnk08UCM&#038;font=Default&#038;lang=en&#038;initial_zoom=2&#038;height=650\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" 0=\"webkitallowfullscreen\" 1=\"mozallowfullscreen\" 2=\"allowfullscreen\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\"><\/iframe>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Sources<\/p>\n<p>[1] Richard Harris, and Peter J. Larkham, eds. 1999.\u00a0<em>Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and Function<\/em>. Planning, History and Environment Series. New York, NY: Routledge 6<\/p>\n<p>[2] Bruce Lesh. n.d. \u201cPost-War Suburbanization: Homogenization or the American Dream?\u201d Baltimore County Public Schools. http:\/\/www.umbc.edu\/che\/tahlessons\/pdf\/Post-War_Suburbanization_Homogenization(PrinterFriendly).pdf. 3<\/p>\n<p>[3] Margaret Lundrigan Ferrer, and Tova Navarra. 1997. <em>Levittown: The First 50 Years<\/em>. United States of America: Arcadia Publishing. <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=yh0nM4sIH14C&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA6&amp;dq=%22island+trees%22+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=DF0u7jdKVV&amp;sig=H19RY647YASUM5OBpTHwlpPuIK4#v=onepage&amp;q=%22island%20trees%22%20%22levittown%22&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=yh0nM4sIH14C&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA6&amp;dq=%22island+trees%22+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=DF0u7jdKVV&amp;sig=H19RY647YASUM5OBpTHwlpPuIK4#v=onepage&amp;q=%22island%20trees%22%20%22levittown%22&amp;f=false<\/a>. 7<\/p>\n<p>[4] Margaret Lundrigan Ferrer, and Tova Navarra. 1997. <em>Levittown: The First 50 Years<\/em>. United States of America: Arcadia Publishing. <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=yh0nM4sIH14C&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA6&amp;dq=%22island+trees%22+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=DF0u7jdKVV&amp;sig=H19RY647YASUM5OBpTHwlpPuIK4#v=onepage&amp;q=%22island%20trees%22%20%22levittown%22&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=yh0nM4sIH14C&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA6&amp;dq=%22island+trees%22+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=DF0u7jdKVV&amp;sig=H19RY647YASUM5OBpTHwlpPuIK4#v=onepage&amp;q=%22island%20trees%22%20%22levittown%22&amp;f=false<\/a> 8<\/p>\n<p>[5] Peter Bacon Hales. n.d. \u201cLevittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb.\u201d University of Illinois at Chicago. <a href=\"http:\/\/websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu\/faculty\/pcatapano\/US2\/US%20Documents\/Levittown%20Documents%20of%20an%20Ideal%20American%20Suburb.pdf\">http:\/\/websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu\/faculty\/pcatapano\/US2\/US%20Documents\/Levittown%20Documents%20of%20an%20Ideal%20American%20Suburb.pdf<\/a>. 3<\/p>\n<p>[6] Kenneth T. Jackson. 1985. <em>Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States<\/em>. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.csun.edu\/~rdavids\/350fall08\/350readings\/Jackson_Federal_Subsidy_and_Suburban_Dream.pdf\">http:\/\/www.csun.edu\/~rdavids\/350fall08\/350readings\/Jackson_Federal_Subsidy_and_Suburban_Dream.pdf<\/a>. 204<\/p>\n<p>[7] Weingroff, R F. 1996. \u201cFEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY ACT OF 1956: CREATING THE INTERSTATE SYSTEM.\u201d <em>Federal Highway Administration<\/em> 60 (1). https:\/\/trid.trb.org\/view\/469739.<\/p>\n<p>[8] Alfred S. Levitt. 1951. \u201cA Community Builder Looks At Community Planning.\u201d <em>Journal of the American Institute of Planners<\/em> 17 (2): 80\u201388. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979318\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979318<\/a>. 98<\/p>\n<p>[9] Richard Longstreth. 2010. \u201cThe Levitts, Mass-Produced Houses, and Community Planning in the Midtwentieth Century.\u201d In <em>Second Suburbs<\/em>, edited by Dianne Harris, 123\u201374. University of Pittsburgh Press. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt83jhq9.11\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt83jhq9.11<\/a>. 123<\/p>\n<p>[10] Chad M. Kimmel. n.d. \u201cCommunity in History: Levittown and the Decline of a Postwar American Dream.\u201d Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. http:\/\/www.asanet.org\/sites\/default\/files\/savvy\/footnotes\/nov03\/fn8.html.<\/p>\n<p>[11] Dianne Suzette Harris. 2010. <em>Second Suburb: Levittown, Pennsylvania<\/em>. University of Pittsburgh Press. <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=Rbfy5gikEpwC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PP1&amp;dq=%22levittown%22+history&amp;ots=OXLLNeEdZb&amp;sig=Awn24rDlCWtwdwWu_fosNLw--k8#v=onepage&amp;q=%22levittown%22%20history&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=Rbfy5gikEpwC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PP1&amp;dq=%22levittown%22+history&amp;ots=OXLLNeEdZb&amp;sig=Awn24rDlCWtwdwWu_fosNLw&#8211;k8#v=onepage&amp;q=%22levittown%22%20history&amp;f=false<\/a>. 7<\/p>\n<p>[12] Richard Garber, and Nicole Robertson. 2006. \u201cThe Pleated Cape From the Mass-Standardization of Levittown to Mass Customization Today.\u201d <em>ACADIA<\/em>, 426\u201339. 428<\/p>\n<p>[13] Alfred S. Levitt. 1951. \u201cA Community Builder Looks At Community Planning.\u201d <em>Journal of the American Institute of Planners<\/em> 17 (2): 80\u201388. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979318\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979318<\/a>. 80<\/p>\n<p>[14] \u201cLevittown.\u201d 2016. .edu. Digital History. 2016. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&amp;psid=3427\">http:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/disp_textbook.cfm?smtid=2&amp;psid=3427<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[15] Peter Bacon Hales. n.d. \u201cLevittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb.\u201d University of Illinois at Chicago. <a href=\"http:\/\/websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu\/faculty\/pcatapano\/US2\/US%20Documents\/Levittown%20Documents%20of%20an%20Ideal%20American%20Suburb.pdf\">http:\/\/websupport1.citytech.cuny.edu\/faculty\/pcatapano\/US2\/US%20Documents\/Levittown%20Documents%20of%20an%20Ideal%20American%20Suburb.pdf<\/a>. 5<\/p>\n<p>[16] Levittown Public Library. n.d. \u201cLevittown History.\u201d .org. Levittown Public Library. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.levittownpl.org\/research-history\">https:\/\/www.levittownpl.org\/research-history<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[17] Kathryn T. Flannery. 2007. \u201cLevittown Breeds Anarchists! Film at 11.\u201d In <em>Placing the Academy<\/em>, edited by Jennifer Sinor and Rona Kaufman, 109\u201324. University Press of Colorado, Utah State University Press. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt4cgq72.10\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt4cgq72.10<\/a>. 120<\/p>\n<p>[18] Barbara M. Kelly. 1993. \u201cLittle Boxes, Big Ideas.\u201d <em>Design Quarterly<\/em> 158: 26\u201331. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/4091292\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/4091292<\/a>. 28-29<\/p>\n<p>[19] Barbara M. Kelly. 1993. \u201cLittle Boxes, Big Ideas.\u201d <em>Design Quarterly<\/em> 158: 26\u201331. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/4091292\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/4091292<\/a>. 28<\/p>\n<p>[20] James Leach, and Lee Wilson, eds. 2014. <em>Subversion, Conversion, Development: Cross-Cultural Knowledge Exchange and the Politics of Design<\/em>. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=E42AAwAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA1&amp;dq=design+of+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=fiSItE4bGw&amp;sig=UJJP7OU73hAsdZqvZ9fy2BfYEhU#v=onepage&amp;q=remolding&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=E42AAwAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA1&amp;dq=design+of+%22levittown%22&amp;ots=fiSItE4bGw&amp;sig=UJJP7OU73hAsdZqvZ9fy2BfYEhU#v=onepage&amp;q=remolding&amp;f=false<\/a>. 11<\/p>\n<p>[21] David Kushner. 2009. <em>Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America\u2019s Legendary Suburb<\/em>. New York, NY: Walker &amp; Company. <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=2KqsKUk36ZkC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR9&amp;dq=evittown:+Two+Families,+One+Tycoon,+and+the+Fight+for+Civil+Rights+in+America%E2%80%99s+Legendary+Suburb.+&amp;ots=4BwPcSVSHO&amp;sig=ZjjJp7DZ--faMHRzS4BdFDt1bpU#v=onepage&amp;q=levittown&amp;f=false\">https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=2KqsKUk36ZkC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PR9&amp;dq=evittown:+Two+Families,+One+Tycoon,+and+the+Fight+for+Civil+Rights+in+America%E2%80%99s+Legendary+Suburb.+&amp;ots=4BwPcSVSHO&amp;sig=ZjjJp7DZ&#8211;faMHRzS4BdFDt1bpU#v=onepage&amp;q=levittown&amp;f=false<\/a>. Xvi<\/p>\n<p>[22] Barbara M. Kelly. n.d. \u201cThe Houses of Levittown in the Context of Postwar American Culture.\u201d West Babylon, New York. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/nr\/publications\/bulletins\/suburbs\/Kelly.pdf\">https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/nr\/publications\/bulletins\/suburbs\/Kelly.pdf<\/a>. 5<\/p>\n<p>[23] MARTIN DINES. 2015. \u201cMetaburbia: The Evolving Suburb in Contemporary Fiction.\u201d In <em>Making Suburbia<\/em>, edited by John Archer, Katherine Solomonson, and Paul J. P. Sandul, 81\u201390. University of Minnesota Press. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.5749\/j.ctt17t77s8.9\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/10.5749\/j.ctt17t77s8.9<\/a>. 84<\/p>\n<p>[24] New York Times. 1994. \u201cHow William Levitt Helped to Fulfill the American Dream.\u201d <em>New York Times<\/em>, February 6, 1994.<\/p>\n<p>[25] Richard Rothstein. 2015. \u201cThe Racial Achievement Gap, Segregated Schools, and Segregated Neighborhoods: A Constitutional Insult.\u201d <em>Economic Policy Institute<\/em>, Race and Soical Problems, 7 (1): 21\u201330. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12552-014-9134-1\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12552-014-9134-1<\/a>. 27<\/p>\n<p>[26] James Wolfinger. 2012. \u201c\u2018The American Dream\u2014For All Americans\u2019 Race, Politics, and the Campaign to Desegregate Levittown.\u201d <em>Journal of Urban History<\/em> 38 (3): 430\u201351. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0096144212445452\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0096144212445452<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[27] Bernadette Hanlon. 2010. \u201cOnce the American Dream.\u201d In <em>Once the American Dream: Inner-Ring Suburbs of the Metropolitan United States<\/em>, 1\u201311. Temple University Press. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt14btdf6.6\">http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/j.ctt14btdf6.6<\/a>. 4<\/p>\n<p>[28] Susan Saegert. 1980. \u201cMasculine Cities and Feminine Suburbs: Polarized Ideas, Contradictory Realities.\u201d Signs, The University of Chicago Press, 5 (3): S96\u2013S111. S102<\/p>\n<p>[29] Charles E. Redfield. 1951. \u201cThe Impact of Levittown on Local Government.\u201d <em>Journal of the American Institute of Planners<\/em> 17 (3): 130\u201341. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979326\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/01944365108979326<\/a>. 136<\/p>\n<p>[30] \u201cBilly Joel Biography.\u201d n.d. .com. Biography. https:\/\/www.biography.com\/people\/billy-joel-9354859.<\/p>\n<p>[31] \u201cLittle Boxes.\u201d n.d. .com. Genius. https:\/\/genius.com\/Malvina-reynolds-little-boxes-lyrics.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Reasoning<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Levittown is often credited as America\u2019s first suburbs, a picturesque town symbolizing the American Dream at the time. Before World War II, housing and buying a house was very expensive and mainly only rich, upper-middle class white families could afford to own nice a home all to themselves. This led to many middle, working, and lower class families to be stuck in crowded houses or apartments in urban centers like New York City. After World War II, however, the economy began to thrive and Americans sequentially took advantage of the new economic freedoms, like being able to afford a home of their own. The reason why I choose to present Levittown the way I did was to show how William Levitt capitalized on an untouched market, the US housing disaster, and how he was a beneficiary to the timely arrival of the GI Bill, which helped veterans (specifically white ones) get mortgages \u2013 making it easier for them to pay for houses. The Federal Highway Act was another piece of legislation put in place around the time of Levitt, allowing thousands of Americans to more easily commute from their suburban neighborhoods into and out of the urban centers where they were employed. All of these dynamics helped change the face of American suburbs and also how Americans perceived the their livelihood, their community, family life, family ideals, gender roles, gender norms, racism, classism, individualism and the American Dream. Amongst all this radical change, however, Levittown acted as a stabling force for many white Americans looking for the social bubble suburbs ultimately provided. In the wake of the Second World War, the American Dream became the ability to buy and own a house, made possible by the new and innovative federal legislation. Levitt understood how to capitalize on the circumstances at hand and seized the opportunity to produce affordable housing, showing his innovate thinking in a time where so many would end up following his model.<\/p>\n<p>I really wanted to display the layouts of the houses and how they were constructed because of the apparent gender roles we can synthesize from them. Leaving the attic or second floor unfinished, having no garage, or basement gives men the opportunity to display their manhood in subtle ways they may have even been unaware to. Men are often perceived as the logical candidate to be able to handle manual work or renovation projects, yet this is a tool that could really be used for men to show off their masculinity. On the other hand, these masculine gender roles also carve out a woman\u2019s role was also perceived, as the men take the part of doing all the \u201cdirty\u201d work of home renovation and women get the \u201cclean\u201d work in this renovation process. For example, women are expected to be the ones to provide guidance with interior decor, not men. Levitt made and planned the Levittown houses with these gender constructs in mind, accepting that the interior of houses would likely be renovation to one\u2019s own liking, not the outside. Levitt wanted the outside of his suburban neighborhoods to all be the same. Levitt did not want any individualization to distinguish homes from one another, which became a personal brand for Levitt to produce these massive neighborhoods, filled with cookie-cutter homes. Residents who would renovate their homes provided distinction throughout the community as a symbol of class or monetary wealth. This too also makes competitions for which person has the best house, creating divides within certain classes. The construction of Levittown also brought up a various amount of other problems, such as racism. Levitt built Levittown as a new community, meant to exclude African Americans or any other force that would put his artificial utopia at risk. Personally, I felt it was important to highlight the overt racism Levitt certainly carried and his building of Levittown, and the obvious marginalization of African Americans, is proof of it. By highlighting that I wanted to enlighten those who were not aware about this reality of early-American suburbs so as to portray a more complete reflection on the realities of the time. Levittown was a community of shelter and oppressive tendencies, and when they did not approve of someone or something, they were place in a constrained, social box, removed from their suburban dream.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sources [1] Richard Harris, and Peter J. Larkham, eds. 1999.\u00a0Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and Function. Planning, History and Environment Series. New York, NY: Routledge 6 [2] Bruce Lesh. n.d. \u201cPost-War Suburbanization: Homogenization or the American Dream?\u201d Baltimore County Public Schools. http:\/\/www.umbc.edu\/che\/tahlessons\/pdf\/Post-War_Suburbanization_Homogenization(PrinterFriendly).pdf. 3 [3] Margaret Lundrigan Ferrer, and Tova Navarra. 1997. Levittown: The First 50 Years. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/2018\/04\/02\/levittown-timeline\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Levittown timeline&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/amst-mpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}