Other Levittown Projects
Levitt went on to plan and build another community of more than 17,000 homes in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which saw its first residents in 1952. Willingboro, New Jersey was originally built as a Levittown, and bears several Levittown-specific street names such as Levitt Parkway. Levittown, Puerto Rico, built in the 1960s, was also one of Levitt's projects.
During the late 1950s, Levitt and Sons also developed the community known as "Belair at Bowie," in Bowie, Maryland. In 1957 they acquired the historic Belair Mansion and estate, home of Maryland's colonial Governor Samuel Ogle and his Belair Stables. In 1959 the community was annexed by Bowie. He also built in Palm Coast, Florida, Richmond, Virginia and Fairfax, Virginia. Also, in the early 1960s, the company built a 5000 house community in north central New Jersey called Strathmore-at-Matawan. The Strathmore name had originally been used by Levitt & Sons in its upper middle class developments on Long Island in the 1930s. Levitt even built near Paris at Lésigny in Seine-et-Marne, France. He was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1965.
Levitt & Sons was sold to ITT International Telephone and Telegraph in 1968 for a reported $90 million. Levitt subsequently lost much of his wealth in unsuccessful investments.
Read more about this topic: William Levitt
Famous quotes containing the word projects:
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)