Students Head to Levittown Museum

As part of a unit on neighborhoods and civic responsibility, East Broadway students learned about the history of their community with a visit to the Levittown Museum.

Located in the Levittown Memorial Education Center basement, this robust collection of neighborhood artifacts gave the students a clear vision of life in the planned community built by Levitt & Sons between 1947 and 1951.

Under the direction of tour guides Geri Raab and Irene Metzler, both Levittown natives, the students learned that Hempstead Turnpike was once a landing strip, that no one was allowed to hang laundry outside on a Sunday, and that there were no fences built around the original 17,447 cape and ranch-style houses.

Raab and Metzler gave a tour of a model kitchen, living room and child’s bedroom in a Levitt home and showed the students a number of toys made popular in the 1950s.

They even listened to recordings of the Howdy Doody Show played on a 78 record.