Levittown Historical Society And Museum

09/02/2026

The exhibit commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is still on display in the William Clark History Room of the Hicksville Gregory Museum. PM

09/02/2026

On this day in 1945....
Amongst the sailors who witnessed Japan's surrender was my 7th grade social studies teacher, Julius Leiber.
PM

On September 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

In this image, captured by Carl Mydans, Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff, signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters. Watching from across the table are Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland and General Douglas MacArthur.

During the morning ceremony, General MacArthur told listeners that the Japanese and Allies did not meet "in a spirit of mistrust, malice or hatred but rather, it is for us, both victors and vanquished, to rise to that higher dignity which alone benefits the sacred purposes we are about to serve."

https://s.si.edu/3Bbi3w9

08/30/2026

Some interesting books on Long Island history. We sell many books on Levittown history in the gift shop of the Levittown Museum.

08/30/2026

Elementary school classes from the Levittown and Island Trees school districts will soon be starting up again at the Levittown Museum.

We teach the children about the rural communities of Island Trees and Jerusalem that preceded suburban Levittown. We teach them about World War Two, the meaning of Memorial and Veteran's days and show them our Vietnam War memorial. We teach them about the building of Levittown and about life in Levittown and America in the middle decades of the 20th Century. We teach them about mass-production and technology and how those things have shaped the Modern world. We do such activities as a scavenger hunt. Teaching the next generation about their heritage as Levittowners and as Americans is the most important thing we do here because history is as much about the future as it is about the past. -PM

Monday Morning , Miss Taylor Masteomonica and Mr Dan Harley 2nd Grade class from Abbey Lane Elementary School arrived for a tour of the Levittown Historical Society by President Paul Manton 😊🏠 🏫

08/29/2026

Leroy Grumman. His company was established in 1929 - the same year that Levitt and Sons was founded - and would go on to build as many fighter planes during World War Two as Levitt build houses in Levittown. After the Allied victory, his company spend decades manufacturing military aircraft to address national defense needs of the Cold War era.. One of the company's greatest triumphs, however, was building the lunar modules that put the Apollo astronauts on the Moon. Quite a number of Levittown residents worked for this company in the 1950's-1990's period and I have had the good fortune of knowing a few. PM

As a young naval lieutenant, Leroy Grumman was posted to the Loening Aircraft factory in 1920 as test pilot- company founder Grover Loening convinced Grumman to resign his commission and join his company, quickly rising through the ranks. In 1924, Loening hired two talented individuals to assist Grumman- Jake Swirbul and Bill Schwendler.

Financially faltering, Loening had to sell his company to Keystone Aircraft in 1928 which in turn got bought by Curtiss Wright. Curtiss planned to shut down the Loening factory in Manhattan and the employees had to move to Bristol, Pennsylvania.

Grumman and his two closest friends happened to be Jake Swirbul and Bill Schwendler. They didn't want to uproot their families so in 1929, the trio decided to form their own aircraft company and stay in New York City.

Since Grover Loening was barred from forming another aircraft company by the terms of the sale, the next best thing was to invest with Grumman. Loening's treasurer was hired as the first employee who also happened to be from a prosperous NYC family who decided to also invest with Grumman.

Leroy Grumman then recruited the thirty most skilled employees from the former Loening plant. Being financially cautious, Grumman decided they would only do business with the military, preferably the US Navy. To fund the new company, they opened a repair station for Loening amphibians on Long Island.

On 5 December 1929, Grumman and the founding associates met for the first time and the next day, the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Company was born. Most of the company's initial capital came from Grumman's severance package. Jake Swirbul's mother worked for a wealthy Long Island family that thought so highly of her, they lent him money as well.

In March 1930, the rest of the tiny company's employees were allowed to purchase stock.

At the maiden flight of the Grumman F-14 Tomcat on 21 December 1970, those initial investments in 1930 would have increased 7700x their original value!

Grumman's first design will the subject of a future post!

Images: Cradle of Aviation Museum, Time Magazine, Suffolk Times

08/29/2026

The prickly pear cactus grew in great abundance on the old Hempstead Plains upon which Levittown is situated. There are late 19th Century records of this growing along the creek bed of Big Hollow Creek, a rill that ran alongside the western side of Division Avenue.

08/29/2026

A quiet farmhouse. A peaceful small town where everyone knew everyone else. A tight-knit block in a city where the same neighbors had lived for years. In spite of the hardships of the Great Depression, these are the kinds of places that were the norm in most of America in the 1930's. These were the kind of places whence came America's soldiers. They went on to witness scenes of atrocities and destruction. Levittown and places like it after the War not only simply gave them a place to live. It gave them a serenity that fosters peace-of-mind. Over the years I have met Levittowners who were at D-Day, were on the beaches of Iwo Jima, and were present during the liberation of Dachau. Serene Levittown provided them the balm they needed to get on with their productive lives and put the horrors they had seen behind them.

While searching through the ruins of a small village, an American soldier noticed something sticking out from beneath a pile of broken bricks.

At first, he thought it was just another piece of debris.

But when he picked it up, he realized it was a photograph.

The picture showed a family.

A father.

A mother.

And two young children smiling at the camera.

The frame was cracked.

The edges were burned.

But somehow the faces had survived.

The soldier stared at it for a long moment.

He didn’t know their names.

He didn’t know if they were alive.

He didn’t even know where they had gone.

But suddenly, the war felt different.

Until that moment, the village had just been another location on a map.

Another objective.

Another battlefield.

Now it felt like someone’s home.

That evening he slipped the photograph into his backpack.

Not because it belonged to him.

But because he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it behind.

Months later, after the fighting had moved on, he returned to the same village.

Most of the residents had finally come back.

He spent hours asking if anyone recognized the family in the picture.

Nobody did.

Just as he was about to give up, an elderly woman saw the photograph and froze.

Tears filled her eyes.

She pointed to the little girl in the picture.

Then whispered:

“That’s me.”

The soldier was speechless.

The woman explained that her family had fled during the fighting.

They believed everything they owned had been destroyed forever.

She never expected to see that photograph again.

Then she asked him a question.

“Why did you keep it?”

The soldier thought for a moment before answering.

Because when I looked at this picture, I stopped seeing a war.

I started seeing people.

Years later, he would say that finding that photograph taught him something history books never could.

Every battle is fought on land.

But every piece of land belongs to someone’s memories.

Someone’s childhood.

Someone’s family.

Someone’s story.

And sometimes, the smallest object can remind us of the biggest truth.

💬 If you found a photograph like this, would you try to return it?

❤️ Like if this story touched you.

🔄 Share so more people remember the human side of history.