In my entirety, the Levittown area (which includes Levitt
homes built in surrounding towns as well) is approximately
7.5 square miles. My bordering towns are Hicksville and
Westbury on the North side, North Wantagh and Seaford on
the South side, Bethpage and Plainedge on the East side,
and East Meadow on the West side. One of Levitts first
problems with his construction of me was a building code
that didn't allow the construction of houses without
basements. On May 27, 1947 however, "The Hempstead Town
Board repealed Sect. 809 of the Building Code to allow
slab-based construction in the Township."
In order to build me in a cheap and timely manner the
Levitts set aside a 20-acre area of land that they used as
their assembly point. At this point they had workers pre-
cut the lumber and pre-mix the cement. They were able to
have the lumber pre-cut because all the houses being built
at one time had the same floor-plans and dimensions. Still
taking cost into heavy consideration, the Levitts bought
their own forests, had their own sawmill built in Oregon
and bought the appliances they used in the houses directly
from the manufacturers. This cut out all markup costs. For
a period of time the Levitts even made their own nails.
The nails, however, turned out to be defective. The
workers eventually refused to use them, due to the daily
injuries they would cause. In combination with these steps
the Levitts broke the building of the houses into a 26
step assembly line. It was a reverse assembly line,
meaning that the product stayed still and the workers
moved. This method worked so well that at their best they
were able to build 30+ houses a day. first levittown last
ny
