NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER INCLUDES RECREATION FACILITIES

IN LEVITTOWN there are several small
shopping centers for convenience goods
strategically placed among the thousands
of single-family houses which make up
this community (see airview, page 258).
Each of these centers is of uniform type:
four store blocks set on a shallow S
curve, with the streets on each side
widened to allow for angle parking at the

curb. Alongside the stores and the gas
station there is a swimming pool, a chil-
dren's playground, and a community
recreation building with bowling alleys
and a restaurant. There are no large
parking areas, merely widened streets,
because much of the trade is walk-in.
The low, small-scale store buildings, of
whitewashed brick, are the two-front

type. Actually these independent mer-
chants admit only one display and en-
trance front, that facing toward the swim-
ming pool, for the parking street on the
other front has to double as a service
road. This plan is perhaps a little too
simple to be satisfactory. But the short
narrow blocks, widely spaced, give easy
access from all sides.

EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR OF NURSERY AT MAIN SHOPPING CENTER

HAPPY CHILDREN, HAPPY SHOPPERS

CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND AT NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER

MANY SHOPPING CENTERS have plan-
ed to include nurseries and playgrounds
where children could play safely while
their parents went shopping; but in cen-
ters so far built such accommodations are
rare. Nurseries pay no high percentage
rent; in fact taking care of other peo-
ple's children may more easily lead to
damage suits than gratitude. In Levit-
town, however, where the overwhelming
majority of customers are young married
couples with children, the need was im-
perative enough to produce a supervised
nursery in the main shopping center, and
playgrounds complete with swings and
sandpiles in the small neighborhood
centers.

261

The Cape Cod house, far left, was one of the first types of residences built in Levittown, L.I., in 1948.

Photographed in 1957, the house had changed little. At left, a 1949 model that sold for $7,900. The floor plan of a later model shows movable storage wall, fireplace opening on both sides and heater between the kitchen and living room.