Baking legend’s 1960s home hits market with original details and a very unusual kitchen
Marjorie Johnson, a beloved Minnesota baker who died last year at the age of 106, spent more than five decades in the lakefront Robbinsdale home she personally designed, and now that house is on the market for the first time.
Johnson's family has listed the property for $665,000. It sits on 70 feet of shoreline along Crystal Lake and was built in 1968.
Though Johnson lived to 106, her baking career did not begin until later in life. She entered four baked goods in the 1974 Minnesota State Fair at age 55, won three ribbons, and became hooked on competition. From there, she racked up more than 3,000 blue ribbons at state and county fairs across the country, eventually losing count. She became a familiar face on television under the name the "Blue Ribbon Baker," making 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 honored her this year by introducing the new Marjorie Johnson Honey Bee Award, given to the blue-ribbon baker in the honey sweet rolls category.
The house itself is a relic of Johnson's era. At just under five feet tall, she personally selected every detail, from the countertops in the powder-blue kitchen to a low desk designed to accommodate her stature. The kitchen was built with extra freezers and cabinets stocked with every utensil and baking instrument she could need.
The 5,100-square-foot, two-story home includes six bedrooms, four bathrooms, and built-ins throughout. The basement holds an indoor pool where Johnson's son, Steve, said she swam every day until she turned 80. A second kitchen, a family room, a two-car garage, and a three-season room overlooking the lake round out the layout.
Vintage touches abound: shag carpet, floral wallpaper, pink bathroom tile, and a built-in record player all remain, carefully preserved by Johnson herself.
Listing agent Jeanne LeVasseur of Keller Williams Realty said the home's condition is remarkable. "The chrome just shines, and there are no cracks in the tile," LeVasseur 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's daughter Marilee Wheaton said the home reflected her mother's careful eye. "She spent countless hours going through and making sure everything was just how she wanted," Wheaton told The Minnesota Star Tribune. Another daughter, Marleen Stromme, called it her mother's dream house.
Johnson herself remained remarkably positive throughout her life, even into her later years. "Everybody who wants to live and feel good, and not die in their 60s and 70s and 80s, they have to think positive," she once said. "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."
According to FOX 9, the family has already received multiple offers and expects to choose a buyer soon. Wheaton said she believes the right person is out there. "I feel like there is someone out there that is going to love it as much as my mom loved it," she said. "It is a blue-ribbon house and it is absolutely my mom's dream house. The whole house was filled with love. It was filled with smells of all that baking."
Johnson lived in the home with her husband, Leroy "Lee" Johnson, where she also raised her family and perfected the recipes that made her a household name in American baking.
