You probably know Levittown as the place where America went wrong, if you’re a sustainability nerd. The tract home development in Long Island became the model, so we’re told, for all kinds of suburban development, setting the nation on a path to oil addiction and high energy usage.

But the more I look into the place as it actually was built, the more I’ve become convinced that individual Levittown houses were probably fairly low energy-intensity dwellings — and that the community as a whole was smarter than we give it credit for now.

The original Levittown Cape Cods were under 800 square feet, had big windows for drawing in sun light and heat, and were radiantly heated by pipes in the floors. In comparison to even the most energy efficient big, modern home, it would have used a lot less electricity and heating fuel. Not only that, but the Levitts were prefab adherents. They insisted on using factory-machined parts for just about everything because it was cheaper. My guess is that the method generated less waste, too, and required less energy. Plumbing and energy pumping was minimized because of the boiler between the kitchen and bathroom.

The construction methodology wasn’t perfect, of course. They had almost no insulation, for example, and were built in treeless pastures that could not take advantage of natural shade.

The Levittown community had some excellent features built-in that later communities would eliminate. For example, every section of the community had a supermarket and little stores built right into the neighborhood. For women stranded in the ‘burbs without cars, it was not only an essential and efficient shopping spot, but an important center for socializing, too.

I had the pleasure of talking with Polly Dwyer, head of the Levittown Historical Association, and a resident of Levittown for more than 50 years. She recalled that she and her husband — a World War II veteran — didn’t even look at the inside of the house they bought (“They were all the same, we figured”). They were far more concerned with being close to the Village Green, as it was called (“We bought the location”).

What if the real Levittown had become the model for building suburbs? Compact communities with smaller homes and built-in retail and social establishments. Somewhere along the way to the suburban dream embodied by Levittown, the good parts got excised and the high-energy and antisocial elements emphasized.

How that happened is an important story and underplayed story. Some Spanish suburbs look like a cluster of high-rises built way outside Madrid. Though you wouldn’t exactly call these tremendous examples of planning, they do allow for some of the amenities of density. The point is: it’s not just that America suburbanized. How we suburbanized matters, too.

Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to be working on some energy models aided by Jared Silliker and Dawn Danby of the old Levittown homes. Stay tuned — and let me know if you want to help!

And in case you missed the Levittown links that got me interested, here’s a roundup:

Levittown, Pa. | Building the Suburban Dream: “Between 1950 and 1960, 20 million people were drawn to mass housing developments on the outskirts of America’s cities. In terms of sheer numbers, the move to the suburbs outstripped the fabled Westward migration of the 1800s many times over… The new suburbs combined country comforts with city conveniences. With the help of modern production and financing methods, builders like Levitt and Sons made the American dream of homeownership affordable to millions.”

HOUSING: Up from the Potato Fields – TIME: Time’s original write-up on the miracle of Levittown, New York.

Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb: “Levittown has long represented the paradigmatic postwar American suburb. Yet very little in the way of good critical work has been done on the history and significance of this American cultural icon. Over the past decade I have been assembling materials to provide an ongoing cultural history of Levittown and, through its story, to offer a more nuanced and sympathetic picture of American suburban life in the Cold War era. Part of a larger project, Outside the Gates: Cultural Landscapes from the Material to the Virtual, my Levittown work has become so interesting in itself that I have allowed it to evolve into something closer to a work of collaborative history, here on the ‘net.”