Levittown, PA

[Planderella]

Apparently, the PA State Museum has a new exhibit called Levittown, Pa: Building the Suburban Dream.

It seems like a very interesting exhibit and the website gives a pretty good perspective on it. I've never been to Levittown or anywhere in PA for that matter. I'm curious about its current conditions and whether or not it has maintained its reputation as America's neighborhood (for lack of a better term).

 

[kms]

Is it me - I can't find the dates for the exhibit. I'd like to see this.

 

[Trail Nazi]

Since we are in the process of moving north, my husband just drove through Levittown and said it was not a pleasant looking place. Personally, I have never seen it, but the exhibit would be interesting to go to.

 

[passdoubt]

The houses there still go for a premium for the "wow" value of being an original Levittown home, but they tend to attract mostly lower income residents today. The "five points" intersection in the middle of it (which becomes the scene of a car accident at least twice a day) now features check cashing and pawn shops. I believe residents are no longer contractually required to keep the houses in a certain aesthetic shape, so there are a number of additions and modifications.

A lot of today's residents are spillover from Northeast Philadelphia, which was historically the poor white section of the city. People with 5 cars in their yard, half of which don't run... but it's by no means a monolithic group. There are still some original residents.