[an error occurred while processing this directive]
 
  • Home
  • :
  • :
  • Member Center
  • :
  • Make This Your Home Page

House of the Week

House of the Week: A Johnston cottage with storybook appeal

01:00 AM EST on Saturday, March 8, 2008

By Faye B. Zuckerman

Journal Staff Writer

The arched Tudor-style front door with a similarly arched leaded-glass window boasting diamond-shaped panes, make Margaret Mary “Peggy” Pickford’s Johnston home look like a place for the seven dwarfs from Snow White.

Adding to the house’s fairy-tale feel are wrought-iron side rails on the front stoop of the small entry porch and a decorative arched-shaped overhang. Plus it has a crank-out leaded-glass picture window, arched entryways into the screened-in covered porch, and a tiny window with diamond panes next to the front door.

In addition, the two-car detached garage has carriage-house-looking doors, curved windows and wooden shingles. (The house has aluminum siding.) Nestled between the garage and house is a small yard with a white picket fence and two apple trees.

Pickford, who is downsizing, is selling her story-book abode at 814 Hartford Ave, Johnston, for $349,900. Her three-bedroom dwelling, on the corner of Hartford and Harding avenues, and built in 1931, resembles an English-style home from the eclectic house era, which was generally between 1880 and 1940. The era is best known for its English-like Tudors, and this one stands out with many of the elements, including a dormer with a shed roof.

The late Charles T. Toomey Sr., who in the late 1920s and early 1930s served in state House of Representatives, had the 75-year-old house built for his growing family. In 1932, a reporter for The Providence Journal profiled the home describing 814 Hartford Ave. as “simply designed in the English manner. Its exterior is featured by an attractive doorway, and an open porch with graceful arches.”

Anchors on the exterior window shutters are from the Toomey-era. According to The Journal article, “The anchor was the result of a happy inspiration on the part of [architect] Harry A. Lewis … The motif was borrowed from the State seal as a token of Sen. Toomey’s legislative service.”

Inside the house, one finds curved archways with a piece of keystone molding at the top of each arch. The dining room has a decorative plaster crown framing a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Pickford, who is only the third owner, reports that she restored the hardwood floors, crown molding and horse-hair plaster on the first and second floors. Noteworthy picture rails throughout the house feature lots of framed artwork.

“There are many charming things about this house,” says Pickford pointing out a tiny 10-foot-by-10-foot room off the dining room that she uses as a den. It houses the half-bath with the original, 1930s art-deco tiles.

One of her favorite rooms is the screened-in porch off the living room. She adds, “It’s where I like to be in the summer.”

The living room contains the crank-out window and a working fireplace. French doors in three sections lead from the living room into a foyer that has a coat closet, a curved staircase to the second floor, and a door into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Pickford has retained the original hardwood cabinets above the counters, which are covered in Formica. The room still boasts an old-fashioned ironing board and a sleeve board that pulls down from the wall.

“In most houses this has been converted into a spice rack,” she notes. “I kept it because of the charm it adds to the kitchen.”

Pickford put in new cabinets below the sink because the original ones had worn out. You’ll find in a nook big enough for a commercial stove, a traditional stove with four burners. The kitchen has a tile floor.

The semi-finished basement, once used as a ceramics studio, has lots of shelves. The washer and dryer is there and the old non-working oil tank. (The house is powered by gas.)

On the second floor, there are dual linen closets in the hall next to the floor’s only full bathroom. The bath has the original basket-weave pink-and-black tile floor with matching pink-and-black art-deco subway tiles halfway up the walls. There is a white pedestal sink.

The master bedroom has three closets one is lined with cedar panels; the other two offer walk-in storage. In the master suite are two arched entrances to a small dressing room over the porch, which is along Harding Avenue.

The two guest bedrooms boast the home’s signature extra big windows. “It’s sunny all the time in here,” she says. “You don’t need a lot of heat because the sun heats everything up.”

In addition, the three-bedroom, two-floor home, with an English Tudor feel, has a full attic with a pull down staircase.

“When I look at this house and see the shrubs, silver maples and front entrance,” Pickford said, “it makes me think of a story book.”

The house at 814 Hartford Ave., Johnston, with 1,896-square-feet of living space, three bedrooms and gas heat, is offered at $349,900. The taxes are $4,907. Margaret Mary “Peggy” Pickford, of Residential Properties, (978) 996-1322, 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.

fzuckerm@projo.com

Advertisement