Appreciating Levittown

DanHolohan

of all that went into a Levittown house on Long Island.

Note all the radiant slabs, ready for the assemblers.

Not a bit of insulation on the edges, or underneath.

Isn't history grand?

Unknown

And.....

Just one lonesome section of picket fence. We had a builder in Southern RI that did pretty much the same thing with his houses. The subcontractors were so closely scheduled that you could expect to see a plumber holding a vent pipe while the framers were putting the roof sheathing down over it. He accounted for every nail as well!

Glenn Stanton

Manager of Training

Burnham Hydronics

U.S. Boiler Co., Inc.

Bob W._3

Neat. Was that the town which inspired the Malvina Reynolds song, "Little Boxes"?

Unknown

No slab insulation

and almost all of the tubing was in the sand below the slab . They still managed to heat these homes very comfortably and inexpensively in the coldest weather . Or I should say , they used to ......

DanHolohan

I think the fence

was just for the photo. Officially, you couldn't have a fence in Levittown, or a clothesline. And you had to be Caucasian.

It didn't take long for all of that to change.

Nowdays, those housing you're looking at here are selling for about $500,000 and up.

Christian Egli_2

Cookie cutter copycat

The local version here is Huberheights named after Charles Huber... there is also a Hubersouth... he then moved on to Florida. Both communities are successful.

All his homes are forced air though, and none sell for $500,000. Is there something smart about hydronic heat? I think so.

Ken D.

Levitt fence.

I don't think that is a fence. In Levittown, Pa. Most of the homes built in the first 3 years had grapevines. If NY had the same, that might be a trellis. We had a trellis that was similar, although the slats were somewhat narrower as I remember. It was mounted on the carport support poles. And the grapes were good. My Dad would make juice out of them and fill a bottle or two and cork them. Left them under the kitchen sink for some months and voila!. Something more than juice. Keep up the good work, Dan.

Ken D.

boxes

Pete Seeger also sang about them. Little boxes (or was it houses?) of tickey tacky. 60 years and they're still standing. Not bad at all. Bill and Alfred Levitt had the last laugh.

Bob W._3

That was the same song. Kinda elitist really, since the cookie cutter houses in the new suburbs were providing shelter for the postwar families. If one wants to see some real ticky-tacky just look at some of today's homes.

Ken D.

Bob

Amen, Brother! Until Levittown, most people did not own homes. The Levitts made them affordable.In our case, $9000 house with $100 down if you were a vet, more of a downpayment if you were not. You got a brand new house- appliances and all. Levitt's building assembly line methods were basically sound. That why the homes are still here and are worth so musch more than when new.

mark_28

Wow! Somebody else in the world besides my red diaper baby wife actually knows that song. You can find anything on the Internet.

Mark

DanHolohan

There are installation photos of the Levittown radiant systems

in the Library. Look in the Older Radiant Heating System section.

You'll also find the piping layout plans there.

[Deleted User]

Actually...

Malvina Reynolds, a Berkeley resident, was inspired to write "Ticky Tack" by the stucco, pastel houses on the hills of Daly City, California. The sentiments, if not details, of her lyrics seem to apply equally to Levittown.

DanHolohan

That makes sense.

Bob W._3

Thanks Sal. Somehow having the location in CA seems more appropriate:)

[Deleted User]

You're welcome Bob.

Having spent the first 25 of my 52 years in New Yawk and the rest in CA I feel that song is equally appropriate in Levittown and Daly city. :-)

Kevin O. Pulver

Aha Mark!

"red diaper (doper) baby" wife
You've been listening to "the Savage Nation" haven't you!
I enjoy a good rant once in a while myself. Kevin

Bob W._3

Kevin, that must be a more modern usage of the phrase. I believe the term "red diaper baby" referred to the children of 1930's - 1950's leftist and communists, many of which went to the camps in the Catskills. The children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg would have qualified.

I have a friend from an Iowa farm town whose last name is Steinmetz. He is a genius and looks the part, kinda like a wild eyed anarchist. When he went off to college at Case (now Case Western?) in the early 1960's they put him in a dorm with a lot of "red diaper babies". I learned the term from him.

An interesting aside. I was in Ireland when Bobby Sands and three other hunger strikers died. My above friend was coming over from Scotland. Things were tense, to say the least. When he arrived at the ferry at Stranraer they took one look at him and held up the whole ferry for 1/2 hour, while they tore his gear apart and searched him.:)