Mass-produced, often
prefabricated house set on a
development. In the
Northeast, these are generally from the
Fifties onward and are based on the
clapboard styles of
Cape Cod (in
Massachusetts) and the
vernacular style of
Surrey, in
England, on streets with names drawn from kinds of trees (or, rarely, the names of the
real estate developer's family).
The most famous tract houses in America are in three communities, one in Pennsylvania, one in New Jersey, and one in New York State, all called Levittown which were at the time, considered nearly totalitarian in their sameness: each house had an identical appearance and floor plan, with five and a half rooms, an unfinished attic, no basement, and a built-in TV, along with other appliances. Each sold for $5000 in 1947.
Amazingly, Levittown is almost unrecognizable today: since Levitt houses were so easy to remodel, and the ground so fertile, it is almost impossible to find one in pristine condition, with no improvements made on the property. Each Levitt house now bears the stamp of fifty years of living, and is unique -- a lesson to us all, I suppose.