Baking legend’s 1960s home hits market with original details and a very unusual kitchen
The home of a nationally famous baker who died last year at the age of 106 is up for sale for the first time, and the 1968 house is being described as a "time capsule" for its original fixtures and custom kitchen that have been meticulously maintained for more than half a century.
Marjorie Johnson, of Robbinsdale, Minn., got hooked on competitive baking when, at age 55, she entered four baked items in the 1974 Minnesota State Fair, winning three ribbons.
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She would go on to win more than 3,000 state and county fair ribbons — so many that she lost count — and became a national television personality known as the "Blue Ribbon Baker," with regular appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and other national talk shows.
Rosie O’Donnell wrote the foreword to her cookbook, "The Road to Blue Ribbon Baking: With Marjorie." The Minnesota State Fair introduced the new Marjorie Johnson Honey Bee Award this year to recognize the blue-ribbon baker in the honey sweet rolls category.
Johnson "personally picked out everything" in the 5,100-square-foot lakefront home where she perfected countless recipes and raised a family with husband Leroy "Lee" Johnson, the couple’s daughter Marilee Wheaton told The Minnesota Star Tribune.
"This was my mom’s dream house," daughter Marleen Stromme told the publication. "She spent countless hours going through and making sure everything was just how she wanted."
Standing at about 4 feet, 9 inches tall, Johnson designed the countertops and a low desk in the kitchen to accommodate her stature.
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The powder-blue kitchen has extra freezers and is "filled with cabinets for every necessary utensil and baking instrument," the Star Tribune reported.
Other features of the two-story house include six bedrooms, four bathrooms and built-ins throughout, as well as an indoor pool in the basement and 70 feet of shoreline on Crystal Lake, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul reported.
Johnson’s son, Steve, told the Star Tribune his mother swam in the pool every day until she turned 80.
There’s also a second kitchen and family room, a two-car garage and a three-season room with a view of the lake.
Shag carpet, floral wallpaper, pink bathroom tile and a built-in record player are among the vintage touches Johnson carefully preserved that give the house a nostalgic feel.
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"The chrome just shines, and there are no cracks in the tile," the home’s listing agent, Jeanne LeVasseur of Keller Williams Realty, told FOX 9. "All of the fixtures, all of them still work, so it’s kind of unheard of. I mean people are like, 'I definitely had to come and see the house because of her.' She’s a legacy."
Johnson was known for her energy and upbeat personality.
"Everybody who wants to live and feel good, and not die in their 60s and 70s and 80s, they have to think positive," she told the Star Tribune. "What I do, is I wake up in the morning and say to myself, ‘Today is going to be a wonderful day.’ And at the end of the day, it will be a wonderful day."
The home is listed for $665,000. FOX 9 reported the family has already received several offers and hopes to make a decision on a new owner soon.
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"It is a blue-ribbon house and it is absolutely my mom's dream house," Wheaton told the station. "The whole house was filled with love. It was filled with smells of all that baking."
"I feel like there is someone out there that is going to love it as much as my mom loved it," she added.