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William Levitt built much more than just homes. He built the foundation for an entire way of life. As the father of modern American suburbia, Levitt brought affordable home ownership to countless thousands in the years following World War II.
Levitt's genius was in taking the American dream of home ownership and making it a reality by creating small, cookie-cutter homes that were accessible to even the most modest of incomes. The first Levitt homes cost just under $7000 and homes could be secured with no down-payment and a refundable deposit of only $100.
Using assembly line methods borrowed from the great Henry Ford, Levitt created his first planned community, Levittown, in 1947. Homes were broken down into component parts, manufactured in separate locations, and then assembled on-site. With vast open acreage and the proximity to New York City, Long Island offered a great location for those who would work in Manhattan, but didn't want to raise their families in the city. Built on the site of a former potato farm, Levittown fit 17,000 homes neatly onto the property.
Among the first residents of Levittown were hundreds of GIs, who had just returned from service overseas. Levittown would prove to be the prototype for many other communities across American and the world. By the time he sold his company, in 1968, Levitt had built more than 140,000 homes.
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