Raymond E. Johnston and M. Hazel Johnston asked architect Richard C. Niebuhr to build them a house that included a living and cooking area, a space for the family to socialize and sleeping quarters.

Niebuhr in 1955 chose an up-and-coming style called a split level. An outgrowth of the popular ranch house, the split level added a second story that intersected the one-story wing. The heyday of the style was the 1960s and 1970s.

Typically the wing of a split level houses the living space –– front entrance, kitchen, dining and living room. The top level has the sleeping spaces, and the bottom features a den or family room, garage and laundry facility.

Now about 53 years old, the Johnstons’ house at 91 Pleasant St. in Rumford, a section of East Providence, is a notable example of one of the state’s original version of the modern split level.

Gallery

Walk through the House of the Week

The Johnstons’ children are selling their late parents three-bedroom dwelling with 1,750 square feet of living space. It sits on more than a half-acre at the corner of Pleasant and Harmony streets.

The attached garage behind the house has a driveway on Harmony Street. The exterior of the house boasts a mix of shingles and clapboard. Shutters frame the windows, and the second story is slightly bumped out.

There’s a bay window at the front and another on the side of the house. And the Johnstons, avid land conservationists, picked a dark brown color so the house would blend into their woodsy corner lot.

A 1956 article on the house in The Providence Journal describes the color as “out of the ordinary, but harmonious with the wooded background.”

“This house was completely planned by my parents,” says Pamela Murphy, one of their daughters who grew up in the home. “It’s all custom built, everything is custom-made. They only put in the best.”

According to Murphy, her parents “lived to garden.” They filled the grounds with paths that curved around plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas and honeysuckle. All the plants have tags; they are catalogued by name.

In the backyard, the Johnstons put in an oversized brick patio; it has a gardening shed and a fenced-in area behind it.

“They were in the garden all the time,” added Murphy, whose father was a pharmacist and owned E.P. Anthony Apothecary, formerly at the corner of Thayer and Angell streets in Providence. “I love all the colors, the peaches, pinks, whites and reds in their garden.”

A porch with crank-out windows on three sides overlooks the garden and patio. It has electric heat, and Murphy said that her parents liked to sit on the porch and look out at their garden. “They sat out here most years through December.”

The interior of 91 Pleasant St., which has central air, stands out because of a plentiful amount of cedar wood paneling and molding, and hardwood floors. In the kitchen, which was remodeled in the 1990s, the Johnstons added a bump-out window, a skylight and new cabinets with raised-panel doors and white drawer pulls with a mushroom design on each one. The counters are covered with white Formica, and there’s room for three or four people to sit at a small counter that stretches to the center of the room.

“My mother wanted the kitchen to be a place for cooking,” she says. “She had us all eat in the dining room.”

The oversized dining room has a bay window, and the door that leads to the enclosed porch. The eating area includes the home’s signature dark wood molding and wainscoting of horizontal cedar boards.

In keeping with the hardwood theme, the living room at the front of the house also has a bay window, and it features built-ins on either side of the fireplace with a wood mantel. There are cabinets below and open book shelves above. The shelves are recessed; they are lit along the top. Two sets of louver doors close off both kitchen entryways.

The top floor houses three bedrooms and a full bathroom that was recently updated. It has a tile floor and shower and bath tub. There are plenty of cabinets.

Additional storage is available above the sleeping quarters via stairs to an attic with a low ceiling. “You can’t stand up in there,” Murphy says. “But it can store quite a bit.”

The garage level of the house, below the kitchen, houses the laundry facility and a full bathroom with a tile floor. Below this level is a den/play room with a cedar closet, and an unfinished area where the oil tank and water heater are stored.

“This was their dream home,” Murphy says. “They only bought the best products for it.”

The split level at 91 Pleasant St. in the Rumford section of East Providence is for sale for $529,000. It has three bedrooms, 1,750 square feet of living space, two full bathrooms, central air, oil heat and an attached two-car garage with additional storage space. The taxes are $5,444. Jean Clarke, Coldwell Banker, (401) 374-5039 has the listing. An open house is schedule for Sunday from 1-3.

pjhomes@projo.com