Mr. Hadley Goes to Washington

I think that I'm familiar with most of Parish-Hadley's projects, probably due to the fact that I have read both Adam Lewis's Albert Hadley:The Story of America's Preeminent Interior Designer and Christopher Petkanas's Parish-Hadley: Sixty Years of American Design roughly half a dozen times each. However, until I obtained the March/ April 1975 issue of Architectural Digest, I was not familiar with the work that Albert Hadley did for the noted Washington hostess Buffy Cafritz and her husband, William.

Hadley decorated the Cafritz's suburban Washington house in a manner that was in keeping with the house's suburban locale. As Hadley noted, the house "could be in the English countryside, but it is American with strong continental overtones." Also, the house was "sparsely furnished" in order to give it "scale and scope", something that had been lacking in the house that had once been deemed too small.  Because the house was minimally furnished, it seems that each piece was chosen with great care, especially considering that the furnishings were given such prominent roles.  By the way, my favorite decorations in the Cafritz house have to be that flame-stitch rug in the living room and the dining room's blue and white dhurrie rug.

The house was certainly attractive, not to mention well-mannered in appearance, something which was probably appropriate for Cafritz's frequent entertaining.  I can just imagine the Washington power-brokering that went on in these Albert Hadley-decorated rooms.

All photos from Architectural Digest, March/April 1975, Richard Champion photographer.