Trakas said he’s been thinking about putting an exhibition of Brady’s work together for years.

Ferrullo, who worked with Brady from 1987-1992, will curate the project.

“We have a long history together through a good working relationship and friendship,” Ferrulo said. “His family approached me about working with Dean Trakas on this. It sounded like a huge project, but as I thought it over I realized, ‘How could I not?’”

Trakas compared putting the exhibit together to compiling items for a time capsule.
He said when you start to piece together Brady’s life you see fragments of great historical moments – moments for Tryon and even the nation.

Memorabilia from Brady’s life includes his accounts from World War II and early drawings of architectural designs far ahead of their time.

Trakas said the public would be able to view a collection of Brady’s classic designs out of the more than 300 projects he worked on through the years.

“We want to show the evolution of each project from the early idea to the complete project. The whole idea is to show a combination of working drawings, notes that Holland made and his memorabilia,” Trakas said.

Ferrullo said Lanier Library plans to join in with the exhibit to display some of Brady’s collections as well. Holland Brady collected a number of things including an extensive assemblage of books, magazines and music, for example.

Ferrullo said family and friends are currently working to sort through his collections to determine what stands out as something of interest for the community – those who knew and loved him and those who’d love to know more about him.

“Not only was he a fine architect, but he was also a very creative, fine gentleman too and made his impact on the community from early on,” Ferrullo said.

Within a large scrapbook to be set up at the exhibit, space will be left for community members to bring notes, pictures and more to contribute.

“We would also like to have anyone who has a great story to tell about Holland to write up a paragraph or two about what they found so great about him,” McIntyre said.

McIntyre said they welcome anyone who has lived in a Holland Brady house to share what they know.

“We have records of all of the houses that the office did but they are under the original owner’s names and don’t necessarily have addresses with them,” McIntyre said. “We’d like to have a complete record.”

McIntyre said they have selected a handful of homes that will be featured through photographs. According to Trakas, local photographers Chris Bartol and Mara and Ford Smith have offered their help to photograph the many architectural gems from Brady’s career.

If you live in a Holland Brady home or have an item you would like to have considered for the exhibit, call Pat Ferrullo at 859-3177 or Dean Trakas at 859-6006 or 864-590-3905.

“We’re just putting out an impassioned request for anyone to bring by anything they would like to contribute,” Trakas said. “We would hate for someone to have a great thing to remember him by and us not know about it, so we want to open it up to everyone.”