Mr. Kilroy's Home

In Manhattan newspapers home-hunting ex-G.I.s read the ad with pleased surprise. "It's Mister Kilroy now ... for $70 a month." For the $70 and $1,000 down, a veteran could buy a brand new, three-bedroom house, with log-burning fireplace, new gas range, Venetian blinds, gas burner and a landscaped plot 75 by 100 feet. Total cost: $9,990, well under what similar older houses were selling for in the East. What was the catch?

Veterans who hustled 20 miles out to the site at Westbury, L.I. found none. In fact, they could buy the houses with no down payment at all if their credit was good. They also found a builder who, despite high costs, Governmental red tape and black markets, was finishing eight houses a day--and making a profit.

How It Was Done. Hardly had William Levitt (39), president of Levitt & Sons, doffed his Navy lieutenant's uniform in November 1945, than he went to work. He scoured the country for building material, shipped it to Long Island.

He drew up plans for ten different models, shrewdly designed them with identical floor plans so that parts were interchangeable. Then he built a factory to make the parts, put men to work building 1,000 houses. He runs an open shop, thus avoids union featherbedding. Example: he used a spray gun, usually barred by most unions, for painting. By varying his architectural designs he avoided the monotony of most semi-prefabricated houses (see cut). This year he built 700 houses.

Levitt estimates the total cost on his

Kilroy development at 30-c- a cubic foot (as against his estimate of 40-c- for less integrated builders). Each house costs approximately $7,500 before land, landscaping, overhead and profit. Some operators might feel that this is cutting it too thin, but sharp Bill Levitt says: "We like the business--and the profits, too." This year Levitt & Sons will gross $18 million on its building and supply business. Biggest item on Levitt's 1947 program: 3,000 more houses even lower in price.

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