Guests were lured into the ground floor landing by a cozy inglenook warmed by a distinctive fireplace. The wooden strapwork mantle in an eclectic Craftsman style reflects popular English interior tastes after World War I. Craftsmanship and materials in the Johnsen House are superb. Dave loves the stone masonry beneath the porch. All the precisely cut purple sandstone ashlar blocks are meticulously fitted, in the fashion of Las Vegas' great Ilfeld Auditorium. Woodwork on the ground floor is exceptional, luxurious and expensive.
Maple floors contrast beautifully with deep oak door and window frames.
The Romeros opened up the interiors by eliminating walls and closets to create an expansive downstairs library and a regal master bedroom upstairs. Most of the remodeled rooms are finished with thick area carpets, fine antiques and strong Victorian colors. The flat, white planes of the house peek out at Las Vegas and the traffic of Eighth Street from behind a curtain of soaring trees. Stone had found his way to New York City as a gifted young architect from Arkansas in the 1930s. A new streamlined style of architecture had been developed a few years earlier in Europe by such talents as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, and American architects were eager to adopt the International style.