http://www.levittowners.com/history/houses/Levittownhouses.htm

I'm posting this in case any of you guys/gals would like to see what a house in Levittown was like in the 1950s. I'd say about 95% of these homes still stand, most of which have been added onto. And to think, in the 50s, carpenters said "Levittown Houses will blow away with the first storm."

And, yes, that's Federal Circuit Breakers that came with these homes.

Ian A.

Ian, that's cool, thanks for the link.

Roger

LOL,
From the 1957 Jubilee:
Somehow, I couldn't see myself living in a house like that.

Thanks for the link Ian!.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 07-03-2006).]

Great Link !
Just think what those houses cost complete with lawn and trees and shrubs. 50 years later you can spend the same amount of money but you only get the lawn( not the land, but the grass only) , trees and the shrubs !

NO CASH REQUIRED FOR VETERANS. i LIKE THAT NOVEL IDEA. iM A LITTLE OLDER BUT i MISSED OUT ON THAT DEAL. THANKS FOR THE TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE.

You're welcome guys!

Ian A.

Some of them $11,000 homes now go for $300K+.

Didn't Levitt build 2 0r 3 of these communities(maybe more). I thought one is in Florida, and 1 is in NY also..

In fact, isn't there one over in Europe?

Here's a Rancher For Sale Today:

Price: $229,900

Compare it to the bottom-right photo on the Rancher Page:




Pennsylvania, New York (Long Island), and Puerto Rico, according to Wikipedia. There once was a Levittown NJ, but not anymore.

Europe? I haven't a clue.

Ian A.

{Edited 08/07 to fix photo link.}

[This message has been edited by Theelectrikid (edited 08-08-2006).]

"Levittown NJ, but not anymore."

Where he built in jersey, is now called Somerset NJ, and they all had FPE Panels.

Actually I believe it's now called Willingboro Twp in Burlington County.

Ian A.

Greenbriar, Fairfax County Virginia, 2200 homes all of the same 6 designs, circa 1967-1971. The last of the Levitt communities. Easy to work on as once you did one the other types were all the same. Originally priced at about 15,000, now going for close to half a million.

He built 3 or four sites in Jersey, but then came the copy cats, kendal Park, was one of the largest copy cat builders, we were paid 35 cents an hour, to stage materisl, out of school early, and we would pile in the car and head for the job.

Okay. Wow, I didn't know he had <b>that</b> many.

Ian A.

Ian,

They would build model homes, take orders, then if they had eniough intrest, start building, many developers copied the levit homes, some were sucessful, and some never built more then the models, they called these levit homes, when in fact they were developed by other builders, riding on the levit name, the projects in somerset, and old bridge, were called levit homes, but were copies, of levits success, levit had developed the first production homes, making them affordable to almost everyone, after the long island project, the whole country changed the way homes were built.

This is a good post, i wonder if anyone still has an electrical plan set, they actually had, wiring plans.

[This message has been edited by LK (edited 07-04-2006).]

Thanks LK.

Ian A.

Over on this side of the Atlantic, we had large numbers of "prefabs" (pre-fabricated) homes erected to help relieve the acute housing shortage at the end of World War II.

There were various designs, the Arcon models being one of the best known. Various construction methods were used, but tubular steel roof supports with asbestos roof sheets and a kind of cement sheet for the exterior walls were very common.

The prefabs were intended to last for about 10 years until more "conventional" housing could be built, but many of them are still around today, much loved by their residents.

http://aghs.virtualbrum.co.uk/agww2/prefabs.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/newport/pages/article_prefabs.shtml

http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/interesting/prefabs/prefabs.htm



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-05-2006).]

Few Swedes can afford to build anything but a prefab (modular home). There are some fairly large areas of identical wooden boxes, built in the 1970's. The Levittown houses look like an architect's dream in comparison. There are homes worse than this but I find no pictures.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 07-10-2006).]