The open, modern kitchen has air conditioning and butcher block counters. ON THE COVER: The 14-room house has a formal dining room and a cupola with arched windows.

The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo

While the Blizzard of 1978 was bearing down on Rhode Island, Emio DiSanto signed the legal papers to own a vintage Italianate-style house located off Broadway on Providence’s West Side.

He fell in love with 106 Courtland Ave., boasting a plaque, which read James W. Winsor (c. 1850). He discovered the house in an advertisement in The Journal’s real estate pages. “‘Mini-mansion, 14 rooms,’ is what it read,” he recalls. “We were looking for a bigger house and couldn’t believe there was something this big available in our price range.”

For the next 18 months, DiSanto’s new home became a family affair. He enlisted his immediate and extended family to help restore the house with six bedrooms, four full bathrooms, three fireplaces, 12½-foot high ceilings, formal staircase, and more than 3,600 square feet of living space.

The previous owners had covered the floors with commercial-grade carpeting. “We couldn’t find anyone who was willing to rip it up for us,” he says. “So I had to get my family to pitch in.”

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Their efforts uncovered nearly pristine hardwood floors except for the kitchen where the floorboards were warped. He says, “The kitchen was on many different levels.”

About 15 years ago, DiSanto took charge of more work on the house, and he renovated the kitchen giving it an open design. He wanted a modern look, and to get that appearance, he says, he ripped down several walls.

“We made it functional and contemporary,” he says. “You have the best of both worlds — historic living and contemporary conveniences.”

The L-shaped kitchen contains a long table, enough room for about 10 or 12 people, lots of cabinets, butcher-block counters and a fireplace. They added air-conditioning to the kitchen only.

In an alcove next to the kitchen are a small den/office and a full bathroom. DiSanto uses the alcove area as an office, and his desk is nearby glass doors leading to a side yard.

Off the kitchen are back stairs to the second floor, a small mud room, closet and door leading to a porch. The porch stairs lead to the backyard and an unattached two-car garage.

The house is for sale for $495,000 because the DiSantos no longer need so much space.

The dwelling delivers a notable example of the style, inspired by homes in Tuscany, and designed to be reminiscent of a villa. The 2 ½ stories, built in 1850 by Winsor, a grocer, features decorative brackets under the second-floor oversized eaves and bay window overhangs on each side of the house.

It has the style’s signature octagonal-bracketed cupola with tall thin windows. The cupola delivers a 360-degree view of Providence. Throughout the house are tall large-paned windows (the second-floor ones are arched) with rectangle pediments. The front-entry has an elaborate bracketed overhang with intricate decorative designs such as hanging tiny sculptures of globes and additional pieces that resemble upside down wedding cakes. The central double doors are also typical of the style.

According to DiSanto, the front entrance was originally on Broadway in the late 19th century. In the early 1900s, the dwelling was shifted (“by oxen,” he says) to face Courtland Street, and a new foundation was dug out. The basement has a full bathroom, and the DiSantos do their laundry there.

Step through the front door, and you are standing in a foyer with a grand staircase. To the right is a den with a bay window, crown molding and a plaster medallion in the center of the ceiling. The fireplace has a striking black-and-red granite mantel.

A door in the den leads to a small entryway with a side entrance to the house. This entrance has a decorative overhang, and there’s a roomy walk-in closet under the stairs. DiSanto says, “Visitors would use this closet to wash their hands after tending to the horses and carriages.”

Beyond the small entryway is a family room. It has a fireplace and large walk-in closet.

To the left of the stairs is the living room-dining room with a matching bay window and similar moldings. DiSanto believes that pocket doors once separated the living room and dining area, but they were taken out before they moved into the house some 30 years ago.

The second floor is split up into two levels separated by a staircase of about five stairs. The level contains six bedrooms and two full bathrooms. The lower level on the second floor has a full bathroom and two small bedrooms; the upper level has four bedrooms, full bathroom and roomy landing at the top of the main staircase. The third floor with its attic-storage space and cupola are accessed through the upper level of the second floor.

Built in 1850, the Italianate-style home at 106 Courtland St. on the West Side of Providence is for sale for $495,000. It has gas heat, air-conditioning in the kitchen only, 3,600 square feet of living space, four full bathrooms and six bedrooms. Lou Della Posta at Albert Realtors/GMAC, (401) 465-0783; www.106courtland.winwithlou.com, has the listing.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 Faye Zuckerman, real estate writer,

75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com. For more information, call (401) 277-7333.