LEVITTOWN - In 1951, 7-year-old Louise Cassano couldn't imagine a better life than the one she lived in Levittown.
She would climb aboard her bicycle and ride past the rows of cookie-cutter homes. Fences didn't make better neighbors; there were no fences anywhere. Kids staged backyard campouts in makeshift tents. And nobody locked their front doors.
“It was an absolute ideal community,” said Cassano, whose love affair with Levittown never waned.
She still lives in the Long Island town dubbed by some as America's first suburb.
Cassano now qualifies as a senior citizen; Levittown is old enough to join AARP as well. She's among the organizers of a huge 60th birthday party for the Nassau County town, set for Sunday and featuring high school bands, floats, local groups, war veterans and the fire department.
Nearly two dozen original Levittown homeowners will serve as grand marshals.
It was October 1947 when William Jaird Levitt opened the first of what became 17,544 Cape Cod and ranch houses rising from blighted potato fields 40 miles east of New York City. The development gave thousands of post-World War II GIs the keys to their American Dream.
It was an instant success, widely chronicled and duplicated nationwide.
“Dad was a New York City fireman,” Cassano recalled. Like many of their neighbors, her parents “never in their life dreamed that they could own a home. When the opportunity arose ... they jumped at it.”
Those Cape Cods originally sold for $6,990. The ranch homes were slightly more expensive. Each house came with four rooms, a bath, an unfinished attic and amenities - steel kitchen cabinets, Bendix washer, GE refrigerator, Hotpoint electric range.
None had basements; excavations would have slowed the almost assembly-line construction.
Today, Cassano said, “you can't get a house in Levittown for less than $400,000.” Virtually all the original homes have been renovated, in some cases leaving the original structure nearly invisible.
“It's to the point they're almost McMansions,” said Polly Dwyer, president of the Levittown Historical Society.
A local Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a home at 52 Oaktree Lane as the best example of an original Levitt home, but even it now wears a coat of aluminum siding.
Levitt initially prohibited blacks from joining the suburban exodus. Thanks to Supreme Court edicts and the civil rights movement, minorities were eventually permitted to purchase homes, but Levittown remains a largely white community.
“I think black people were hurt and offended by the blatant rejection, and simply when given the opportunity, chose to go elsewhere,” said Barbara Kelly, former director of the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra and author of “Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown.”
Along with the homes, schools went up across town to accommodate the baby boom. Their names reflect the bygone era: Jonas Salk Elementary School, Gen. Douglas MacArthur High School. In those days, church dances, trips to the movies and the long since demolished roller rink on Hempstead Turnpike provided the hot social activities.
Levitt also allocated land for the construction of churches and built “village greens” that featured a grocery store, pharmacy and other shops - all within walking distance for moms, since their husbands typically drove the family car to work. He also filled the town with nine community swimming pools and various Little League diamonds.
Cassano met her future husband, Mauro Cassano, a year after her 1961 high school graduation. They married in 1964 and later had two sons: Joseph lives nearby and sends his children to Levittown schools, while Andrew recently moved his family to North Carolina.
She has few memories of protests against the Vietnam War in Levittown, which she described as “very Republican” politically (the area remains a GOP stronghold). She did take to the streets in the 1970s, but the focus was more domestic.
“When the price of meat skyrocketed, we protested about the price of meat,” she said. “We picketed when the gasoline prices went up.”
She returned to school in the 1980s when her children were nearly grown, eventually earning a masters at New York Tech. After working as a reporter for a weekly newspaper for several years, she started her own public relations firm and later served as president of the chamber of commerce.
“There is a real genuine hometown feeling here and I think our generation was so involved and so enthusiastic about school, about the community,” Cassano said. “We were all - every one of us - was very involved in activities in school, and for that reason I think that we all feel that we did something in terms of community.”
“It was an absolute ideal community,” said Cassano, whose love affair with Levittown never waned.
She still lives in the Long Island town dubbed by some as America's first suburb.
Cassano now qualifies as a senior citizen; Levittown is old enough to join AARP as well. She's among the organizers of a huge 60th birthday party for the Nassau County town, set for Sunday and featuring high school bands, floats, local groups, war veterans and the fire department.
Nearly two dozen original Levittown homeowners will serve as grand marshals.
It was October 1947 when William Jaird Levitt opened the first of what became 17,544 Cape Cod and ranch houses rising from blighted potato fields 40 miles east of New York City. The development gave thousands of post-World War II GIs the keys to their American Dream.
It was an instant success, widely chronicled and duplicated nationwide.
“Dad was a New York City fireman,” Cassano recalled. Like many of their neighbors, her parents “never in their life dreamed that they could own a home. When the opportunity arose ... they jumped at it.”
Those Cape Cods originally sold for $6,990. The ranch homes were slightly more expensive. Each house came with four rooms, a bath, an unfinished attic and amenities - steel kitchen cabinets, Bendix washer, GE refrigerator, Hotpoint electric range.
None had basements; excavations would have slowed the almost assembly-line construction.
Today, Cassano said, “you can't get a house in Levittown for less than $400,000.” Virtually all the original homes have been renovated, in some cases leaving the original structure nearly invisible.
“It's to the point they're almost McMansions,” said Polly Dwyer, president of the Levittown Historical Society.
A local Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a home at 52 Oaktree Lane as the best example of an original Levitt home, but even it now wears a coat of aluminum siding.
Levitt initially prohibited blacks from joining the suburban exodus. Thanks to Supreme Court edicts and the civil rights movement, minorities were eventually permitted to purchase homes, but Levittown remains a largely white community.
“I think black people were hurt and offended by the blatant rejection, and simply when given the opportunity, chose to go elsewhere,” said Barbara Kelly, former director of the Long Island Studies Institute at Hofstra and author of “Expanding the American Dream: Building and Rebuilding Levittown.”
Along with the homes, schools went up across town to accommodate the baby boom. Their names reflect the bygone era: Jonas Salk Elementary School, Gen. Douglas MacArthur High School. In those days, church dances, trips to the movies and the long since demolished roller rink on Hempstead Turnpike provided the hot social activities.
Levitt also allocated land for the construction of churches and built “village greens” that featured a grocery store, pharmacy and other shops - all within walking distance for moms, since their husbands typically drove the family car to work. He also filled the town with nine community swimming pools and various Little League diamonds.
Cassano met her future husband, Mauro Cassano, a year after her 1961 high school graduation. They married in 1964 and later had two sons: Joseph lives nearby and sends his children to Levittown schools, while Andrew recently moved his family to North Carolina.
She has few memories of protests against the Vietnam War in Levittown, which she described as “very Republican” politically (the area remains a GOP stronghold). She did take to the streets in the 1970s, but the focus was more domestic.
“When the price of meat skyrocketed, we protested about the price of meat,” she said. “We picketed when the gasoline prices went up.”
She returned to school in the 1980s when her children were nearly grown, eventually earning a masters at New York Tech. After working as a reporter for a weekly newspaper for several years, she started her own public relations firm and later served as president of the chamber of commerce.
“There is a real genuine hometown feeling here and I think our generation was so involved and so enthusiastic about school, about the community,” Cassano said. “We were all - every one of us - was very involved in activities in school, and for that reason I think that we all feel that we did something in terms of community.”
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