“The house focuses the eye on the long view, whether it be the trees, the fields or into other rooms,” explains designer Henry Johnson. The goal was to bring the outside in. On the lawn, the whimsical fox sculpture by Leonard Streckfus is perfectly at home in Baltimore hunt country. Inside, the owners’ daughters practice piano in full view of the room’s focal point, a Grace Hartigan masterpiece above the limestone fireplace.

Once upon a time, a simple board-and-batten farmhouse sat nestled in the Baltimore County countryside. The husband and wife who lived there loved their home, and so, as their family grew, they added on a shingle-style addition. Many years later, another family built a clapboard siding wing. More than a century went by until yet another family added to the patchwork history of the house with a brick contemporary section.

Nice story, says designer Henry Johnson of Johnson Berman, but not a word of it’s true. This house was nothing but a dream until November 1997 when the homeowners broke ground. The family, who had lived for 14 years in an older home nearby, designed the new home “out of a passion for the country, horses and hunting,”explains Johnson.

And history. The distinct section of the home reach back several centuries, interpreting several eras of American architecture to create a home that is historically inspired, yet decidedly contemporary. “And a seamless fit with our life and family,” the homeowners happily acknowledge.

The finished effect is exactly what they wanted: a home that looks as if it were built onto over time as the family expanded. Johnson is quick to credit the homeowners for the design’s success: “This is their house, not the architect’s or the designer’s. We just guided and assisted. They’d thought about this house for years and designed it to compliment their passions for the countryside, art, entertaining, gardening and most importantly, their family.”

The family’s three young children were crucial members of this team approach to design. “The whole family picked out the stone for the garden and pathways as well as the house,” states Johnson, “and the children made the fabric and color choices for their rooms.” (The son’s room is awash in John Deer-tractor green, a fitting choice for a young boy growing up among horse pastures and cornfields.) As a designer, Johnson believes that “everybody has every right in the world to want what they want, and it’s really great when they get it.” What this family wanted was a home for the new century that was deeply rooted in the past. What it got was the perfect home in which to create its own history.