Postwar city neighborhoods?

Would anyone be able to describe neighborhoods in NYC that
were built in the years following WW II (say 1946-1956)?

I believe portions of Canarsie E 86th St--row homes (actually
2 family) built of a lighter red brick--represent an example
of this. I'm wonder what other developments were done.
There's a section of Marine Park, made of darker brick,
that may be postwar as well. The Marine Pk houses have a
lot more ornamentation than Canarsie.

I noticed the Canarsie row houses because they have a similar
facade with thousands of postwar row houses built in Philadelphia
(except most Phila units were single family, not 2-family, and
Phila had a service driveway and garage in the back).


I'm interested in learning about postwar _city_ developments.
The postwar "Levittowns" of the country have been extensively
written about. But thousands of modern rowhouses were built
in Philadelphia and I presume NYC as well during the post
war years.

Thanks! [public replies only please]


There's an interesting contrast between the Phila rowhouses
and the Penna Levittown, both built at the same time. The
basic Levittown house cost _less_ than a city row house. Depending
on what the buyer was seeking, the city offered much more of
housee. The new city rowhouses offered a back driveway, private
parking spot, and garage for cars. It had a basement (shared with
the garage) with room for laundry and open space for storage or a
future rec room. It had a dining room and 3 bedrooms (house size
was about 16 x 36). The disadvg of a city house was very little
lawn (tiny plot in the back next to the parking space, and fairly
small plot for a front lawn), and of course no space between
the neighbors.

Later Levittown PA houses had larger sizes available that of
course cost more. The city neighborhoods also had many
twin units (semi detached) that were slightly larger, had
a powder room on the first fl, and of course a little space
between neighbors. Prices between the two were comparable.

Jeff nor Lisa wrote:
>
> Would anyone be able to describe neighborhoods in NYC that
> were built in the years following WW II (say 1946-1956)?
>
> I believe portions of Canarsie E 86th St--row homes (actually
> 2 family) built of a lighter red brick--represent an example
> of this. I'm wonder what other developments were done.
> There's a section of Marine Park, made of darker brick,
> that may be postwar as well. The Marine Pk houses have a
> lot more ornamentation than Canarsie.
>
> I noticed the Canarsie row houses because they have a similar
> facade with thousands of postwar row houses built in Philadelphia
> (except most Phila units were single family, not 2-family, and
> Phila had a service driveway and garage in the back).
>
> I'm interested in learning about postwar _city_ developments.
> The postwar "Levittowns" of the country have been extensively
> written about. But thousands of modern rowhouses were built
> in Philadelphia and I presume NYC as well during the post
> war years.

The best source for this would be Robert A. M. Stern et al.'s *New York
1960*, which alone among the four volumes (so far; *New York 2000* may
or may not follow) has been reprinted in a "bargain" edition. Offhand I
think most of that sort of development was either before or after the
period you ask about -- e.g. Coop City in the late 60s, Riverbend
(public housing!) and Roosevelt Island in the 70s, Ruppert Towers, etc.
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net