Preplanned, post-Second World War communities of low-cost, tract, massmanufactured, single-family homes built by Levitt and Sons, Incorporated, which became worldwide construction models for suburbs and edge cities. The first Long Island Levittown had 17,447 houses. Their purchase, largely by veterans using federally insured mortgages, marked the beginning of white flight from New York City.

Restrictive racial covenants and discriminatory sales practices barred African Americans. For purchasers, Levitt homes fulfilled lifelong dreams. Social critics viewed Levittowns as harbingers of the quintessential suburban lifestyle, places of monotony conformity social isolation and bigotry the epitome of Malvina Reynold’s “Little Boxes.”