Levittown

In 1951 an exhibit center displaying samples of three houses opened along Route 13 in Tullytown. One model, the Levittowner, cost $9,990 and required only a 70 x 100 foot lot-ideal for steel workers and blue collar wage earners looking to break into the housing market. The low-cost housing was also perfect for a planned community that brothers Alfred and William Levitt envisioned on farmland they recently purchased in lower Bucks County.
 
Ten weeks after their exhibit center opened, 3,500 Levittowners and similar models were ordered and Levitt & Sons construction company would eventually complete about 200 houses a week. Levittown was to be completely self-contained, with schools, places of worship, recreation areas and shopping facilities. The Levitt brothers’ plans also included landscaping, and a washing machine, stove and refrigerator in each house. By signing an agreement of sale, each owner pledged not to erect a fence, change the color of their house, or hang laundry out on Sundays. When laundry was hung out, only umbrella-type clotheslines were permitted. 
 
Today, more than 50 years later, Levittown is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and plans are underway to re-establish part of the Delaware Canal filled in for parking at the Levittown Shopping Center.