Why Levittown houses have no basements, and is it really that odd
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It's a feature of Levittown that causes people unfamiliar with the place to raise eyebrows ― no basements.
Why doesn't Levittown have basements?
You have to return to post-World War II America which had millions of young people not only returning from the war, but eager to settle down and start families.
Bill Levitt, who spent the war as Navy Seabee in Hawaii, heard it over and over when he asked what the men wanted to do after the war: "I don't care, I just want to live someplace green."
Which meant some place bucolic, away from cities. He knew his family's homebuilding business would boom, and offered this advice to fellow vets: "Boys, when you get back home, build your heads off."
To accommodate demand, houses would have to be built quickly, and cutting out the basement not only saved time but, with other construction innovations, allowed Levitt and Sons Inc. to sell houses to those with blue-collar jobs and middle-class incomes.
Beginning on Long Island, New York in 1947, then moving to Bucks County in 1951, then Willingboro, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the frequently overlooked Levittown in Prince George's County, Maryland (called "Belair at Bowie"), tens of thousands of homes were built without basements. This allowed Levitt to build quickly.
In Bucks County, his crews built 40 houses a day to keep up with demand.
Was lack of basements in Levittown controversial among homebuyers?
Nope. In Long Island, Newsday, the local newspaper, took issue with critics who mocked Levittown's lack of basements, editorializing, “Maybe (a basement) was good enough for grandpappy to live in a baroque chateau, propped up over a hole in the ground, but it is not good enough for us.”
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Do any houses in Levittown have basements?
Sure, but it's a tricky question.
There are non-Levitt houses with Levittown ZIP codes that have basements, such as in the Bloomsdale-Fleetwing neighborhood, where "basement parties" were popular with young people (probably still are). But Bloomsdale was not built by Levitt and Sons.
However, some Levitt homes were retrofitted with basements by ambitious homeowners, though how many have added basements is unknown. In 1973, Ray and Gaetane Bedard razed their two-story Levitt Rancher on Goldengate Road and built a single-story house with a full basement.
“After doing this, I not only have a great feeling of accomplishment, but a house built exactly like I want it,” Ray Bedard told the Courier Times at the time.
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Are basements a popular amenity with homebuyers today?
Not really. The Levitts were ahead of their time.
According to a 2021 survey by the National Association of Homebuilders, 67 percent of new homes in the U.S. are built on slabs, showing how influential the Levitts were with home-design innovations. The same survey shows just one in five new homes has a basement.
JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Yes, we have no basements in Levittown. Here's why
