(Editor's Note: This Month in Levittown History is a new monthly installment in the Levittown Tribune. Freelancer writer and vice president of the Levittown Historical Society Paul Manton will be the column's contributor.)

1664: Capt. John Seaman acquired land from Takapausha of the Massapequan Indians south of Hempstead Turnpike on Feb. 12. Known as the Jerusalem Purchase, the acquisition included the southernmost part of present-day Levittown and most of Wantagh. His farm, "Cherrywood" (the origin of the Cherrywood Shopping Center) was near the intersection of North Jerusalem and Wantagh Avenue. A later purchase - a parcel of land owned by a John Strickland - expanded Seaman's holdings and he quickly sold off parcels to fellow Quaker farmers. The name Jerusalem (approx. southern Levittown and northern Wantagh) persisted until 1948 and was derived not merely from the Quaker practice of endowing settlements with Biblical monikers (Bethpage, Jericho, for example) but from the fact that a distant ancestor of the Seaman's fought in the crusade in Jerusalem with King Richard the Lion-Hearted. Because Capt. Seaman lived on his land rather than simply owning it like John Strickland, he is regarded as the first European settler to dwell in Levittown.

1907: William J. Levitt was born in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Feb. 11 to Abraham and Pauline (Biederman) Levitt. It is extraordinary on this date to consider the impact this man had upon modern life. William Levitt no more invented the suburbs than Ford invented the automobile or Singer the sewing machine. Nevertheless, his name is forevermore affixed to this revolution in living arrangements because, like Ford and Singer, he took something hitherto limited in scope and made it not merely accessible to "the masses", but the dominant mode.