Happily, none of this applies to Alderley, a five-acre Great Falls estate named for the homeowner’s birthplace in England. Alderley, owing to the confidence and vision of its owners (who asked not to be named) along with their intuitive relationships with the architect and builder, is an English-style stone farmhouse. At 21,000 square feet, it is a large home, but it doesn’t feel that way. Indeed, the home’s chief achievement might be that it is unostentatious—as subtle as it is exquisite. According to the female owner, it was crucial that the house “maintain a sense of coziness—that was a very important criterion.” She added: “It is large, but [the intention] was that the scale of the rooms be in proportion, and that there be no terribly grand, huge rooms.”
Upon entering the gravel drive—a circular path of translucent pebbles in lieu of asphalt—Alderley looks distinctive enough, but does not overwhelm. Its angular, massive arches cut triangular peaks in the sky, while the house, wrapped in earth-colored stone and stucco, and covered with thick slate, rests on a delicately sloping lawn. Most of the land surrounding the home is clean, open space. Though meticulously landscaped, it does not appear overdone.
Closing in, however, some more intriguing details begin to reveal themselves: a library garden here, a kitchen garden there, a zinc fountain, a stone sculpture, a pool, a pergola, a variety of species trees—and, finally, the fact that the main house is flanked by large, nearly symmetrical wings. These include, to one side, a guesthouse and, to the other, a section with multiple bedrooms for visitors, while the master suite, master bath, their dressing rooms and master den exist just off of the main house on the first floor.
None of this spaciousness is immediately apparent, says Josh Baker, president and founder of BOWA, the McLean-based design-build firm tapped by Alderley’s owners to oversee construction. “The height is not [towering],” he says of the exterior. “It’s almost a story and a half—not really two full stories. So all of the ceilings on the second floor are interesting because they are sort of vaulted, if you will. They have more of an attic feel.”
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