Key Takeaways
Most of us do n’t execute the peril of mistaking our neighbour ’s home for our own . We do a circumstances of thing to set our houses apart from each other : painting the exteriora shade of eggplant , or planting a gigantic hydrangea in front . But beyond our own touch , it ’s usually pretty easy to distinguish one sign of the zodiac on your block from another because , quite plainly , they ’re dissimilar houses . But is that always the example ?
If you live in the United States – or have seen a television show set in suburb – you experience whatcookie - cutter neighborhoodsare . very houses evenly space apart , with match lawns , backyards and even landscape , these development are a ocean of seemingly dateless , identical home .
And while a lot of hoi polloi interview the prayer of a home that you could easy disconcert for your neighbors ' , there is a method behind the cookie - cutter rabies . To get to the bottom of it , we ’ll trace the story oftract housing(the more genuine estate - friendly term for cookie - cutter neighborhoods ) .
It began with the post - world-wide War II gravy ; suddenly , there were million of families who now had stable employment and were quick to own their own piece of the American Dream . Unfortunately , the housing marketplace did n’t of necessity get the memo : The blue - collar income of many family simply did n’t match the cost of preexisting lodging . Consider the fact that a whopping 5 million residency were need to domiciliate people by the end of 1945 , due to former gilbert returning home [ source : Materrese ] .
What the United States needed was space for middle class house – lot of it , and fast . And Levitt and Sons , a real estate investment and evolution company on Long Island , had a 6,000 - acre land piece of ground on an abandoned murphy arena that fit the bill . William Levitt ( of the " Word " part of the company ) was also returning from the war and realized that small mountain on big tract could make excellent neighborhood . In May 1947 , Levitt and Sons announced that 2,000 low-priced rentals would be built on their land .
Two days later , 1,000 house were already lease . When 1948 rolled around , the Levitts werebuilding 30 housesa solar day . And demand was still develop ; by 1949 , the Levitts agnize they could start sell homes that were a bit larger but still manufactured identically and affordable . In 1951 , almost 17,500 homes were build in ( or very near ) what came to be sleep with as Levittown . Also known as the first cookie - cutter neighborhood .
detect how the Levitts ( and those who came after them ) created these gingerbread family from scratch on the next Thomas Nelson Page .
Characteristics and Style of Cookie-cutter Houses
So now that we know how the first tract housing exploded ( or manifold , more accurately ) , permit ’s determine out how exactly those " little boxes on the hillside " are construct so perfectly identically – and why .
The answer is as American as piece of ground housing itself : grease one’s palms in bulk ! And it ’s true ; creating 10 monovular houses is a lot cheaper than creating 10 distinctive business firm . There ’s a predictable amount of stuff that can be bought in large quantity , which meansless wasteand bigger discounts . Discounts that can , ostensibly , be passed down to a homeowner who can pay less for a home .
Another feature of speech of piece of ground housing was found early on . The Levitts saw theFord assembly line manikin , with its streamlined fabrication arrangement and repetitive twist , and cypher out that it could work for them . Each twist prole was given one specific project and propel from house to menage completing it . The dish of the model was that the Levitts ( and subsequent tract housing developers ) could avoidlabor unionsby lease oecumenical workers and educate them specifically . It also guarded against the high turnover of construction work , as no person had too much " institutional knowledge " and was more valuable than the next [ seed : Edward Everett Hale ] .
There ’s another cause those biscuit - tender homes are so desirable to developers and builders . Just like Levitt did in the ' XL and ' 50s , many of the firms either own or make partnerships with sure supplying companies . So , all the windows come from one spot , all the door from another and so on . That ’s fairly predictable ; what Levitt did , however , was really buy those subsidiary company . By owning , for instance , the lumber company and nail fellowship that they used , he forefend messy things likestrikes(and , again , union ) [ reservoir : Materrese ] .
While this is a pretty clever line move ( that some would call downright fly-by-night ) , it also contributed to the utter uniformity of the sign . There was literally not a nail ’s difference in each Levittown home .
