SUBURBIA - THEN & NOW by

Suburban Lifestyle

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:18:53 UTC

Suburban lifestyle in comparison form the 1950's Levittown model to the Santa Clarita Valley is remarkably similar. The picture above displays the astonishing resemblance that the Stevenson ranch community has in common with the communities of Levittown and others in the 1950's. The shape and curvature of the streets and the packed togetherness of the homes parallels developments in the mid 20th century. The houses seen here are also similar to each other minus the fact of changes of color and shape, but basic floor plans of homes are used multiple times when constructing houses. These techniques began in Levittown and are obviously still used today.

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:21:50 UTC

Stevenson Ranch Overhead View

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:25:42 UTC

Common Neighborhood Layout

Public Education

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:29:06 UTC

With the edition of new families moving into Levittown, families needed an Education program to enter their children into. Schools were constructed to support the need for an Academic facility. In Newhall the same principle is seen with Hart High school and Placerita Junior High School. These two schools are maybe 300 yards apart and located right in the center of a large neighborhood. Following Levittown's lead, these schools were purpose built for the education of the kids that lived directly nearby.

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:34:07 UTC

Hart High School

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:40:31 UTC

Placerita Junior High School

Community Recreational Facilities

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:44:54 UTC

Every neighborhood needs some kind of leisure activity that the inhabitants can participate in, and SCV and Levittown are no exception. Levittown was built with numerous parks, pools, and even gardens to occupy its residents free time. Santa Clarita shadows their idea with its own construction of pools like the one shown on the right and even gardens like the one located in Central Park. Santa Clarita has a plentiful amount of parks and other entertaining amenities just like it 1950's cousin. The no to low cost areas of leisure that are located in SCV are in result to the building of similar spaces in Levittown

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:46:10 UTC

Northbridge Community Pool

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:49:29 UTC

Central Park Garden

Communal Convenience

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:51:41 UTC

In Levittown over 60 years ago the introduction of the shopping center was a new and extremely convenient way to conduct your shopping in one general location and save lots of time doing it. Today without a shopping center in a city would be extremely unorthodox. Driving from one end of SCV to the next you will probably pass three shopping centers all filled with an array of different business. In Levittown though, the new tightly packed concentration of people into a single area called for the installment of the shopping center. Other conveniences were things like bus stops and train stations that gave people access to different parts of town and even different cities. Today Santa Clarita is littered with bus stops creating a highly intricate and effective mode of public transportation that made an appearance in suburban lifestyle long ago in Levittown.

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:53:18 UTC

Granary Square Shopping Center

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 06:57:13 UTC

Newhall Metrolink Train Station

Family Centered Developments

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:01:56 UTC

In Levittown structures were created around the needs of Family life. Churches had and still have today an extremely important significance in a families lifestyle, and so Levitt & Sons were sure to construct places of religious worship for their residents. In SCV today we see a high amount of churches, one of the newer ones being Real Life Church pictured above, that draw large crowds every weekend. Places of play for children were very important in Levittown for reasons like houses didn't have a big enough yard to expend the kids of the families' abundant amounts of energy. So spaces like playgrounds were created so that parents could let their children play in a safe yet exciting environment. In Santa Clarita we have a playground at every park, like this one at Newhall Park, that always are filled with families.

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:03:13 UTC

Real Life Church

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:06:37 UTC

Newhall Park Playground

Neighborhood Construction

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:12:53 UTC

In places like Long Island and Pennsylvania William Levitt dominated the construction industry and his towns showed that. Today in SCV we have private companies like Lennar and KB Homes following his lead. The companies purchase large plots of land and construct neighborhoods on these properties. Streets have similar names regarding water in the new home division shown in the pictures above like Riverstream, Township, and Windriver, an idea that was used in Levittown. The street names have a unique way of dividing up communities based on their characteristicts. The quick spring up of neighborhoods in SCV does not match the intensity of Levittown, but it does have it's similarities.

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:16:56 UTC

Building of a Cul-De-Sac

cm2597 — 2014-03-28 07:21:24 UTC

Further Construction of Home