Levittown people: Polly Dwyer, historical society president

Polly Dwyer, 83
President, Levittown Historical Society

My first husband was a World War II vet. He served in the Philippines with the army, so that qualified us, although by 1954 they had relaxed the rules a bit as to who could buy a house here.

We put down $100 and got it back at closing, so really it's like we put nothing down. We paid $65 a month for our mortgage.

We had been living with my mother-in-law in Little Neck. When we came out here, the salesman told us all the houses looked the same on the inside. We had seen a ranch and we had seen a Cape Cod house, so we bought the house without ever looking inside of it. But we really liked the location, we were three houses away from the public library and one of the village greens -- they built seven village greens when they built the houses.

My first husband had the kind of job where if the company was not doing well, his job got cut. So he was out of work for a while. He died in 1980 and all my children were grown but I had one son still living with me. When he died, he was repairing the house. He built an apartment so I could have the income. So that kept me here, I guess, because our house had an income.

After I thoroughly retired, I found out about the historical society and before I knew it, I was the president.

In the early days, the children were all running around outside in the lots. Now everybody works, the husband, the wife. There's nobody in the house most of the time. It's a sad change to me.

You can't find houses for that price anymore, even relatively speaking. There are not affordable houses. There isn't anything line there was for us then in Levittown. There is nothing special for the veterans. No special place to live. It's tough and I feel sorry for them today.

The actual houses here seem to be a big part of the identity of Levittown. Absolutely. We're so proud of our homes. Houses are improved, lawns are kept up. You have an obligation to your neighbors, I think, to keep it lovely.