Levittownnow.com (2024)

FAQs

Who was the first black family in Levittown, NY? ›

On August 19, 1957 an African American couple named Bill and Daisy Myers moved their family into an all-white Levittown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Myers had three children and the house in Levittown had everything they wanted.

The communities also featured community swimming pools and and veterans' clubs and organizations. At the peak of construction, Levitt was building one house every 16 minutes. Each house cost around $8,000, a price that was reduced to about $400 with GI bill benefits (the equivalent of about $4,500 today).

Levittown is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York.

Kera Gordon was just 13. She was the youngest victim in the Levittown shooting that claimed three lives Satruday morning. Police allege the girl died in her home with her mother, Karen, after her brother, Andre Gordon, broke in to the Viewpoint Lane home and shot them.

By 2017, census estimates put Levittown's population at 75 percent white, 14.6 percent Hispanic, 7 percent Asian and 1 percent black.

Director Giorgio Angelini talks with MetroFocus about homeownership and the creation of a permanent American underclass —beginning with the postwar suburban development of Levittown. A city where Black people were explicitly forbidden to own homes.

To accommodate demand, houses would have to be built quickly, and cutting out the basem*nt not only saved time but, with other construction innovations, allowed Levitt and Sons Inc. to sell houses to those with blue-collar jobs and middle-class incomes.

His first Levittown house was a 750-square-foot cottage, with REVIEW 7 5 Page 4 two bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen.

In order to give young couples a chance to buy an affordable house, Levitt cut costs by eliminating basem*nts and giving all houses in his development the same floor plan. Interior and exterior painting was limited to a single two-tone color scheme.

Property values did drop, not because of racial integration, but because the town's lack of ability to remain relevant. It has also suffered from crime, and even acquired the reputation of being the “meth-lab of America.” Levittown, NY, however, transformed over time and remains a healthy suburb.

Is Levittown, NY a good place to live? ›

Levittown is a suburb of New York City with a population of 50,804. Levittown is in Nassau County and is one of the best places to live in New York. Living in Levittown offers residents a sparse suburban feel and most residents own their homes. In Levittown there are a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and parks.

Long answer: The homes have all been altered, expanded or rebuilt since the first house went up 70 years ago, according to the Levittown Historical Society. Levittown began as the first modern suburb in the United States.

Levittown in Long Island, New York, is widely recognized as the first modern American suburb. Levitt and Sons, a construction company, purchased a 7-square-mile plot of potato and onion farms in Long Island in 1947. They set out to build one of the first uniform suburban community in the US.

Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons.

Nassau County, Long Island

AlamyConstruction of Levittown was famously quick: a home was built every 16 minutes. In 1947, entrepreneur Abraham Levitt and his two sons, William and Alfred, broke ground on a planned community located in Nassau County, Long Island.

On the 60th anniversary, this Buck County Courier Times (2017) article provides a timeline of the August 1957 events in Levittown, Pennsylvania, when William and Daisy Myers and their three small children became the first African American family to move into the whites-only community.

The Myers family remained in Levittown for four years after these protests took place, only relocating because William took a job in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, THR reported. However, their decision to move to – and remain in – Levittown in the face of threats and intimidation had long-lasting impacts.

Zipporah Potter Atkins is in the history books as Boston's first Black property owner, which was no small feat in the late 17th century — her home sale was finalized in 1670. Atkins was a free woman, but her father was a slave who left her an inheritance after his passing.

Tremé is the oldest African-American neighborhood in the United States, and the site of many major events that have shaped the course of Black America in the past two centuries.