From her home, where she's lived since 1954, 80-year-old Polly Dwyer sees a foreclosed house across the street; the ones on either side of her house are for sale. This is a far cry from the idyllic vision of Levittown she had when she and her GI husband first bought their Cape Cod house in 1954. They paid just $8,500, and -- with the help of the GI bill and Federal Housing Administration -- qualified for a $65 monthly mortgage. In 1947, the first buyers paid a mere $6,990.

"[The Levitts] gave you bushes; they gave you trees; they gave you a beautiful house,” says Dwyer, president of the historical society. “They wanted a garden community.”

Dwyer helped design and now manages the Levittown museum, which occupies a large room in one of the town's original schools. She gave me an energetic tour, one infused with a sense of Levittown’s romantic beginnings: It was a new start for so many young soldiers and their families; a house there was all they could afford, Dwyer said. What they got in return was a steal.

In the beginning, Dwyer said, everyone was young, earned about the same income, owned just one car, and the wives generally stayed home.

“We had a very good life,” she said. With pride, she told me about raising 3 children and founding a nursery school.

On her block were a library, a bowling alley, and a village green where they used to have block parties all the time. Not any more.

“It’s just not neighborhood-minded any more, and that’s a shame,” she said. “The TV did a number on that. And the computer -- phew! -- that put the nail in the coffin. Technology has changed Levittown.”

Still, Dwyer said she'd never consider selling her house. She loves Levittown and the community-minded ethos most residents still feel it stands for.

The same goes for Mullan, who still considers the community tight-knit. Many of the people he grew up with inherited their parents' homes and decided to stay. Kids still play on their front lawns; people still barbecue in their driveways instead of their backyards. Although they were built quickly, the houses remain sturdy -- something nearly everyone proudly remarks upon.