Word: levitts
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Levittown is known largely for one reason: it epitomizes the revolution which has brought mass production to the housing industry. Its creator, Long Island's Levitt & Sons, Inc., has become the biggest builder of houses...
...Levitt & Sons' President William J. Levitt describes the product simply as "the best house in the U.S." Coming from Bill Levitt, that exaggeration is natural, and pardonable. At 43, the leader of the U.S. housing revolution is a cocky, rambunctious hustler with brown hair, cow-sad eyes, a hoarse voice (from smoking three packs of cigarettes a day), and a liking for hyperbole that causes him to describe his height (5 ft. 8 in.) as "nearly six feet" and his company as the "General Motors of the housing industry...
...largely antiquated industry. Last week he added another cubit to his self-esteem and his builder's stature; in seven days, his salesmen sold another 350 houses in his Levittown "store" (where lumber, piping and other materials used in each house are on display). Said Bill Levitt: "I told them I'd give them an extra week off this summer if they did it. I don't say these things unless I'm sure it can be done." With that batch of orders, Bill Levitt raised his 1950 production goal by another 1,500 houses...
Ranch v. Cape Cod. The influence of Levitt & Sons on housing goes much further than the thresholds of its own houses. Its methods of mass production are being copied by many of the merchant builders in the U.S., who are putting up four of every five houses built today. It is such mass production on one huge site which is enabling U.S. builders to meet the postwar demand and to create the biggest housing boom in U.S. history...
...make the down payment, Junto borrowed $1,500,000 for five days from the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Co., and took over Bethpage. In its treasury was around $5,000,000 in working capital and profits. With this cash, Junto repaid the Fidelity-Philadelphia Co. and paid Levitt and his brother another $3,400,000. Junto agreed to pay the remaining $250,000 to the Levitts next December. Since it expects to do so out of cash on hand and incoming rents, Junto actually got the houses for nothing. When the mortgages are paid off in some 20 years, it will...