science

Levittown

Levittown is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Levittown rather than just read about it. In short: Levittowns are six large suburban housing developments, three of which are actually named "Levittown." They were created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons.

Key takeaways

Levittown belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Levittown to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Levittown from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Levittowns are six large suburban housing developments, three of which are actually named "Levittown." They were created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning white veterans and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. The Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) guaranteed builders that qualified veterans could buy housing for a fraction of rental costs. Under Levitt & Sons, Levittown housing would maintain racial covenants that excluded non-White would-be buyers. The first Levittown house sold for $7,900, and in a short period of time 17,000 units were sold, providing homes for 84,000 people. In addition to single-family dwellings, Levittowns provided private meeting areas, swimming pools, public parks, and recreational facilities. Production was modeled on assembly lines in 27 steps with construction workers trained to perform one step. A house could be built in one day, with 36 workers, when effectively scheduled. This enabled quick and economical production of similar or identical houses with rapid recovery of costs. Standard Levittown houses included a white picket fence, green lawns, and modern appliances. Sales in the original Levittown began in March 1947. 1,400 houses were purchased during the first three hours. The houses were, by later standards, quite small: 750 sq ft (70 m2), with no basement or porch.

Places Levittown, New York – the first Levittown (built 1947–1951) Levittown, Pennsylvania – the second Levittown (1952–1958) Willingboro Township, New Jersey – originally and colloquially known as Levittown (started 1958) Levittown, Puerto Rico (1963) Bowie, Maryland (Belair at Bowie) (1964) Greenbriar, Virginia (1966–1971)

Racial policies William J. Levitt refused to sell Levittown houses to people of color. The FHA included racial covenants in each deed when authorizing Levittown loans, making each Levittown a segregated community. However this did not affect who the houses were resold to. In 1957, William and Daisy Myers bought a second-hand house at 43 Deepgreen Lane in Pennsylvania's Levittown. William was a World War II army veteran and Daisy was a school teacher. The couple had three young children at the time. Attacks began immediately in the previously all-white neighborhood. For days, members of the community would gather hundreds at a time outside the Myers' home in violent demonstrations. Townspeople formed a group called the "Levittown Betterment Committee", dedicated to evicting the Myers and making Levittown all white once more. They would meet in a nearby home, which they dubbed "The Confederate House." The Confederate flag flew outside and "Dixie" was blasted on repeat from a record player. The Myers' struggle gained national attention. The Quakers, American Jewish Congress, and the William Penn Center helped organize a 24-7 citizen patrol. White couples volunteered to babysit the Myers’ children and cleaned up damage in the wake of attacks. Martin Luther King Jr. and other black civil rights leaders met with the family and wrote to them. The couple managed to stay four years more, until William Myers got a job in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Their plight helped lead to the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968.

Gallery

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Levittown

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Levittown claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Levittown before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Levittown ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Levittown

In research: Levittown appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Levittown in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Levittown is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics History of veterans' affairs in the United States, Levittown, Mass production, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Levittown outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Levittown in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Levittown means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Levittown out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Levittown in simple terms?

Why does Levittown matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Levittown?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Levittown.