Today, while reading the article about the new building rules approved by the Assembly for tri- and four-plex housing (“Assembly revamps rules for triand four-plex housing”), I began to reminisce a little.
After my dad came home from the war in the mid-1940s, he had already started a family and began his new life as a civilian in a postwar economy in New York. He had a basic education, honing his skills in the Army.
Many young veterans were coming home in similar situations.
According to an article published in The New York Times in 1994, “Owning a house came to be the embodiment of the new American dream. As promised by endless Hollywood films, it represented fulfillment, and contentment: confident dads, perky moms and glowing children, attending good schools and, later, college. A house brought the American family together.”
Along came William Levitt, a master builder who came up with a plan to build affordable, single-family homes. “Levittown,” as it was later dubbed, was created with plans for simple small homes on lots that were 60 by 100 feet. “The living room was 12 by 16 feet. There were two bedrooms and one bathroom. A family could expand the house by converting the attic or adding onto the outside.”
Although we were never able to afford expanding it, our family of eight lived in one of these houses. When I visited this house on my old street a few years back, it was still standing.
However, now it was “expanded” and saddled with million-dollar homes! What a great idea William Levitt had, building affordable, “expandable” homes on reasonably sized lots, for a young, growing community.
So, as I read about these new plans and rules for housing in Anchorage, I wax nostalgic. No longer are single-family homes, listing over $500,000 or more on average today, the “embodiment of the American dream.” Living with three or four other families on the same property is the new “dream.” That is, if it can be afforded.
— Thomas R. Schmidt
Anchorage
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