Evening star., 1950-12-18
Puox and darlington Are BgScoe Examples Community Living
By George Kennedy

instinct of a pigeon makes his
way through every Y in his path
in the traffic maze around the
Pentagon.
He comes to the Shirley high
way and, the minute he sur
mounts Arlington Ridge in the
early darkness of these December
evenings, his heart is gladdened
by the lighted windows of Park
fairfax and darlington on the
hill beyond.
They make as pretty a picture
as did those old stage spectacles
in which lights cleaned through
the windows of the village
painted on the backdrop.
Parkfairfax and darlington are
adjoining apartment developments
on the far slope of Four Mile Run,
an area which was an oak wood
land 10 years ago.
The two developments form a
place where life is lived without
many of the cares which plague
the less fortunate. The brick
dwellings of Georgian or neo-
Georgian design, all in good taste
and decorated by judicious plant
ing, house population of about
$4,000 well-situated people.
All Modern Conveniences.
Life in this Utopia is one of
ease except for the matter of
bringing up children, which seems
to tire some of the wives. It is
a life of all modern conveniences
lived in the country, for every
apartment has access to lawn and
shade.
In the warm weather of spring,
summer and autumn, the resi-
dents get to know their neighbors
because everybody spends much of
the time out of doors. There are
no fences and experience without
them bellies the old New England
adage, Good fences make good
neighbors."
The highways that intersect at
the development. the Shirley high
way and the Leesburg pike, lead
directly to some of the most beau
tlful country available to the
motoriSt in America. But the men
OF Parkfairfax and darlington
are so fond of home that they
spend most of their Sundays
polishing their cars in the parking
spaces in front of their houses.
Perhaps they feel an instructive
need for manual labor, for in
Observation-Disclosures employees
NOW the lawns, rake the leaves,
remove the trash and fire the
furnaces.
Bird Watchers Rewarded.
Everything is parklike, espe-
cially in the Parkfairfax area
where buildings occupy only 10
per cent Of the space. After a fall
OF snow, such as occurred last
week, the air is full of the glad
cries of children sliding downhill.
A great convocation of mocking
birds has decided that the for
merly wooded area is its rightful
home. They keep working up
novelties of song and patter all
spring. They chase the intruding
squirrels up the slope and peck
the hapless creatures on the head.
In this weather the bird
watchers who put food at the
window are well rewarded. They
are surprised at the number of
migratory birds which like Park
fairfax-Fairlington.
Small groves of enormous oaks
have been preserved in the land
scaping. On these the tap of the
Woodpecker can be heard.
Rent Includes Utilities
No utility bills bother the resi-
dents. Electricity and gas are in
cluded in the rent. And the nights
are not made hideous by barking
and yoWling. Parkfairfax never
allowed tenants to keep dogs or
cats and darlington has had a
ban on them for five years,
At present Christmas wreaths
deck nearly every door. In Fair
l1ngton especially, where every
building could be used to decorate
a Chris mas card, there is an at
mosphere of the old English
Christmas the Christmas of
Dickens DINGHY Dell. AS could be
anticipated there are no vacancies
in this Utopia. Every apartment
is occupied and lights shine from
every window. They give a glow
of warmth and welcome.
Both darlington and Parkfair-
fax were started about 1941 to re-
lieve the Washington housing
shortage which was becoming
acute. darlington was built by
the Defense Homes Corp. a Gov
eminent agency under the aegis
of the RFC. 1t is more than
twice the size of Parkfairfax,
which was built by the Metro
politan Life Insurance Co. Fair
lington has 3,439 apartment units;
Parkfairfax, 1881.
darlington has an air of Will
liamSburg about it. In fact it's
architect, Kenneth Franzheim,
spent sometime, studying the Will
liamsburg reproductions in pre-
pairing himself for the Fairling-
ton job. The darlington build
lngs are of 18th century design
served up straight. Remove the
automobiles from in front of any
of them and substitute a stage
coach and you would have a pic
ture to illustrate a historical novel.
The Parkfairfax buildings, on
the other hand. are modern struc-
lures with forms and details de-
rived from the 18th century. They
were designed by Leonard Shultz,
who planned a similar develop