Only two families have owned the stately John Wheaton House, c. 1833, at 90 Union St. in Warren’s historic district near the downtown waterfront.

The Federal-style house with Greek revival detailing was built for a member of the family that founded the former Wheaton and Baker Rope Works, which was a Warren-based manufacturer of ropes for whaling ships.

The Town of Warren was named after a British naval hero, Adm. Sir Peter Warren, and had been a center of shipbuilding at the time when the Wheaton House was built.

The town had rebounded from extensive damage inflicted on May 25, 1778, when it was raided by British troops during the Revolutionary War.

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Members of the Jannitto family have lived at the Wheaton House since the 1920s, when Angelo Jannitto, who ran a grocery store on Water Street, bought the house as a family home.

His grandson, Arthur “Bud” Jannitto, is the son of the current owner, Ethel Jannitto. He said his paternal grandparents moved from another big house in Barrington after their purchase of the Wheaton House.

The Wheaton House is also notable because of the architect who may have designed it, Russell Warren (1784-1860). Accounts from local histories indicate a belief that Warren designed the house.

Warren, who was born in Tiverton, was a noted Rhode Island architect known for his Greek Revival-style creations. He designed the Linden House mansion in Bristol, the Bristol State House, St. Mark’s Church on Lyndon Street in Warren, and he co-designed the Providence Arcade with James Bucklin. The Arcade, built in 1828, is the oldest surviving enclosed shopping mall in the United States.

The two-story house is surrounded by iron fencing, tall trees and formal gardens, and the front entrance does not face the street directly. The fencing and the landscaping hide the view of the entrance from the street.

Bud Jannitto spent the first 18 years of his life at 90 Union St. with his mother and his late father, who was a banker, and his four brothers and sisters.

The house, painted white with black trim, has a hip roof with a balustrade, and the front porch is supported by Ionic columns. The house has 9-foot ceilings, wide pine floors, eight fireplaces and 13 rooms, including four bedrooms, two full bathrooms and one half bath.

“It’s impressive from the outside, but when you get inside, it’s just a house,” Jannitto said. “It’s gracious, let’s put it that way. The ceilings are high and the rooms are big; it’s impressive.”

Over the years the house has been outfitted to accommodate an extended family living situation.

Jannitto’s uncle, Bill O’Rourke, had an architectural office on the first floor before he passed away, and his quarters on the first floor were later rented out.

An electric climbing chair was installed on the central staircase to assist Ethel Jannitto, who is 93.

Jannitto said that legally, the house could be used as a two-family, but a new owner could also renovate the 3,562-square-foot house for use as single-family home.

A post-and-beam carriage house on the property was formerly a Rope Works building, according to the listing agent, Paula Silva, of Harper, Ramos & Sheridan Real Estate.

The house is on the corner with Liberty Street, and is steps away from a former public high school on Liberty Street, built in 1847 and 1848. The red brick building is now used as senior housing.

Another house on one side of the driveway, near the former school, was part of the estate at one time, but was sold at some point, Jannitto said.

“How that got sold off, I have no idea,” he said. “Apparently, that was a caretaker’s house for the old Wheaton family.”

He said that one of his cousins ran a carpentry business there, and at one time, during the Second World War, it was used to house civil defense equipment.

Jannitto said neighborhood children got caught up with the patriotic spirit of the time and played games in which they imagined they would help defend Warren from its enemies. “But the Germans never came,” he said.

The John Wheaton House, at 90 Union St., Warren, is on the market for $619,000. Annual real estate taxes are $4,813. For further information, contact listing agent Paula Silva, of Harper, Ramos & Sheridan, 366 Hope St., Bristol, (401) 996-9855.How to submit a House of the Week

A different House of the Week appears each Saturday in the projoHomes section of The Providence Journal. The feature tells the story of the house and the people who have lived in it. If you would like us to consider a house for sale as a subject of this news feature, send a photo, information about the house and why it is of interest, to Christine Dunn or Andy Smith,

75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com.

For more information,

call Dunn: (401) 277-7913 or Smith: (401) 277-7262.

cdunn@projo.com