July/august 1993 | Volume 44, Issue 4 The generation that fought
World War II also won a housing revolution that promised and
delivered a home for $7,990 Years later, after the fall of his
financial empire, William Levitt remembered with some
satisfaction the story of a boy in Levittown, Long Island, who
finished his prayers with “and God bless Mommy and Daddy and Mr.
Levitt.” Levitt may well have belonged in this trinity. When he
sold his company in 1968, more Americans lived in suburbs than
in cities, making this the first suburban nation in history, and
his family was largely responsible for that. Jim and Virginia
Tolley met William Levitt in 1949 after waiting in line with
three thousand other ex-GIs and their families to buy houses.
Bill Levitt pointed to a plot on a map spread out on a long
table and advised the Tolleys to buy the house he would build on
that spot. Thanks to a large picture window with an eastern
exposure, the Tolley’s home, Levitt promised, would have
sunshine in the coldest months of