Buffy Cafritz’s Bethesda, Md., house is offered at $2.9 million
Buffy and her husband, genuine estate developer William N. Cafritz, a nephew of Washington enterprise leaders and benefactors Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz, “welcomed politicians, diplomats, Supreme Court justices, academics and other individuals [into the home]. She valued charm, wit and kindness, and had minimal time for individuals who took themselves far too significantly or had no feeling of humor,” Roberts wrote. Invoice Cafritz died in 2014.
The initial inaugural occasion was in 1985, next the reelection of President Ronald Reagan, whom the Cafritzes had entertained in their home. Even though the inaugural get-togethers had been held via 2001 at the Jockey Club in the Fairfax Hotel on Massachusetts Avenue NW in D.C. and later on at other motels, the home in the Bradley Hills community was the web-site of a lot of A-record Washington get-togethers.
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In 2018, when Earl “Rusty” Powell stepped down as the director of the Countrywide Gallery of Art, just one of numerous beneficiaries of Buffy Cafritz’s philanthropy, she feted him at her house. The party’s guest checklist bundled Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), former Kennedy Centre chairman Jim Johnson, Librarian of Congress emeritus James Billington, Ann Jordan, Barbara Allbritton, Maureen Scalia and Clarice Smith.
A get together at the house in 1972 incorporated actor Paul Henreid, who played Victor Laszlo in “Casablanca” actress Agnes Moorehead, who was Endora on the television sequence “Bewitched” Ricardo Montalbán, who was Mr. Roarke on the television collection “Fantasy Island” and Edward Mulhare, who was Professor Higgins in the first Broadway generation of “My Honest Lady.” Surveying the throng at the Cafritz residence, Montalbán advised The Post that it was “like Hollywood get-togethers utilised to be.”
The Cafritzes bought the 1944 Georgian-fashion residence in 1958 from William R. Teunis, and they are thought to be only the next homeowners. In 35 a long time as a Washington optician, Teunis equipped eyeglasses for President Harry S. Truman and other superior-position government officers.
In the early 1970s, the Cafritzes brought in renowned inside designer Albert Hadley of Parish-Hadley to redesign the residence. Elizabeth Stamp wrote in Architectural Digest in 2015 that “few companies have experienced a bigger impression on the inside style and design planet than Parish-Hadley. The partnership concerning Sister Parish and Albert Hadley influenced American decor for much more than three decades.”
By transferring the entrance door, Hadley designed an entry hall. He also included onto the still left aspect of the household, devising a new residing space that Architectural Digest described as “large plenty of to accommodate the Washington elite who flock to the elaborate dinner dances and informal evenings which make the title Cafritz synonymous with entertaining on a grand scale.”
The renovation was featured in the March/April 1975 problem of Architectural Digest.
“It is a dwelling with no tricks,” Hadley informed Architectural Digest. “But it does have a quality of fantasy about it.”
The household has been extra onto because Hadley’s renovation. The bay window that Hadley moved to frame the patio and birch trees, no lengthier faces the exterior. Now it faces the sunroom, which opens to the backyard. Other than the 3 partitions of home windows, an monumental skylight floods the space with normal gentle.
Involving the dwelling home and the sunroom is a relatives place with a hearth, just one of four in the household. A official dining room, the kitchen area and a visitor suite are also on the key stage.
The owner’s suite, on the second degree, has two dressing rooms and two bogs. This amount also has two far more bedrooms and an business. An elevator runs among the 1st and 2nd flooring.
The top and decreased amounts every have a bed room with an en suite rest room. The decrease amount also has an work out place and an place of work.
The grounds, which are just in excess of an acre, are surrounded by experienced trees. The stone path from the patio qualified prospects to a swimming pool and a gazebo. The round driveway and motor court docket have parking for 10 cars.
The six-bed room, 7-rest room, 8,100-square-foot residence is shown at just under $2.9 million.
- Bedrooms/bogs: 6/7
- Approximate square-footage: 8,100
- Ton dimension: 1.08 acre
- Attributes: The 1944 Georgian-fashion house in the Bradley Hills neighborhood was the longtime dwelling of Washington philanthropists Buffy and Monthly bill Cafritz. It has been the web-site of a lot of A-list Washington functions around the many years. Mature trees encompass the grounds, offering privateness. There is a swimming pool, a gazebo and parking for 10 automobiles.
- Listing agent: Theo Adamstein, TTR Sotheby’s Intercontinental Realty