About Levittown

Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States and one in Puerto Rico by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning 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. Levitt refused to sell Levittown homes to people of color, and the FHA, upon authorizing loans for the construction of Levittowns, included racial covenants in each deed, making each Levittown a segregated community. The first African American family, the Myers, who bought a second-hand house there in Pennsylvania, in 1957 experienced attacks on their house, and up to 500 whites gathering outside their house.