Customer Reviews

Parish-Hadley: Sixty Years of American Design

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A beautiful book, certainly more valuable than a mere 'coffee table' book. If one is serious about interior design, seeing and understanding what these amazing people did to the art is imperative. The photographs show rooms that will stand the test of time and make you salivate over the treasures. What an incredible legacy they have, american design owes them beyond measure.

I borrowed this remarkable book from the library, and it's a treasure. Many years ago Sister Parrish, the chintz-loving society decorator who helped Jackie redo the White House, teamed up with Albert Hadley, a polite genius of timeless, clean design and proportion.

The result of this union of opposites was a partnership made in decorating heaven. In fact, the "marriage" produced wonderful offspring: Marriette Himes Gomez and Mark Hampton both got their start here.

If you'd like to see how many of the top American names of the 20th century lived, Jackie, Nelson Rockefeller, Babe Paley, it's all here. And if you'd like in depth exposure to the design principles of two American masters, you couldn't ask for a better source.

What a shame this out of print book costs $250. If it were $50 I'd buy it in a one-click minute. Attention book publishers, you need to reissue this book for the design-starving masses.

A beautiful book, certainly more valuable than a mere 'coffee table' book. If one is serious about interior design, seeing and understanding what these amazing people did to the art is imperative. The photographs show rooms that will stand the test of time and make you salivate over the treasures. What an incredible legacy they have, american design owes them beyond measure.

Pulled from the archives of the legendary interior design firm, PARISH HADLEY, SIXTY YEARS OF AMERICAN DESIGN was published in 1995, the year after Sister Parish's death at age 84 -- or 91, depending. Unfortunately, failing health apparently prevented her active participation in the book but previous interviews and recordings, along with anecdotes from employees, provided information. Of course, long-time business partner Albert Hadley, still in practice now on his own at age 87, was able to help make a fitting tribute to the firm, one of the country's finest in its heyday. Sadly, Parish-Hadley is now defunct, ruined by the last associates before the Millenium.

Although no photographs were done expressley for the book, the projects that did have a shot or two are interesting studies. After the first section on Parish and Hadley, the second part shows examples of rooms in the categories of Arrivals, Living Rooms, Dining Rooms, Libraries, Bedrooms, and Garden Rooms. The third part tells the story of the decoration of the family rooms of the Kennedy White House, complete with documentary photos. And the fourth part shows multiple homes of various clients, most famous, all rich.

In the sixty years, undoubtedly there were many incredible projects that were not photographed for reasons of privacy and it is a shame for the readers and for the sake of a record that not even a mention is made of these. Evidently either Parish or Hadley at least supervised the projects pictured here. However, the strong back-up of talented assistant decorators, such as Bunny Williams, Kevin McNamara, David Easton, Brian McCarthy and David Kleinberg, who later went on to successful careers on their own, are only minimally mentioned if at all. And nothing is mentioned of the in-staff architects, Michael Shell, David McMahon, Paul Engel, John Tackett and Mark Ferguson among others, under the direction of vice-president Harold Simmons, who provided the magnificent "bones" of so many of the projects in the zenith years of the firm; all left before the downfall to start successful practices of their own. A listing of projects with their locations and dates would have been interesting, as would have been a write-up on the talent that trained at the firm. And strangely, there are none of the famous Albert Hadley sketches or renderings of any kind.

Although flawed and much less than it could have/should have been, this book is none-the-less an excellent reference for all interested in traditional residential design. Without a doubt, a MUST HAVE for all decorating libraries.

Consisting mainly of information gleaned from the archives of the legendary design firm, many wonderful interiors projects are featured in this much-loved book. Sadly, Parish-Hadley is now defunct, but many of the decorators and architects who got their training from the Mistress and Master have gone on to successful careers of their own. See my review for another listing of this book. A MUST HAVE for all design libraries.