The split-level concept grew out of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style of architecture, said Elwin Robison, an architectural historian at Kent State University in Ohio, who jokingly refers to his own split level as "neo-Wrightian." Robison noted that one of Wright's home designs, published in Ladies' Home Journal in ...

Who invented the split level house?

But this humble-looking Split Level also had claims to greatness: It was designed by Herman York, a Long Island architect in the firm Matern & York, who is credited by some as having "invented" the split-level tract house after working with the Levitt Brothers at the first Levittown in the late 1940s.

Where did split-level homes originate?

Split-level homes evolved out of suburban ranch homes of the 1940s. A ranch house with flair, the split-level house, or split foyer offered more space for baby boomers. Buyers of today love these family-friendly homes because of their locations in family-friendly neighborhoods.