At Home With Brian Brady

It is only fitting that classical architect Brian Brady lives in such a historical home. On Post Crossing, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the heart of Southampton Village, is Mr. Brady’s white Colonial Revival.

“This house has unbelievable bones to it,” Mr. Brady said. “There aren’t many Colonial Revivals left in the Hamptons—and in Southampton, especially.”

Built in 1929, the home’s original owners were Edward Post White and Lizabeth May Halsey White, family names with long lineages stretching back to the founding of Southampton. Mr. White served many roles in the town from assistant postmaster to tax collector, town clerk and justice of the peace. Ms. White worked as town historian.

Their Colonial Revival with a center hall is on a street full of Victorians.

From the outside, the home today looks remarkably similar to what was depicted in the old photographs Mr. Brady had laid out on the dining room table during a morning visit in September.

“The older houses started on Elm Street and then that is how this block grew,” Mr. Brady said. “So this is one of the last houses built in this neighborhood.”

In front of the white-shingled facade of the two-story manse is a stone walk-up that runs across the front lawn up to the covered porch and entrance. There was an enclosure there at some point, where the White family presumably kicked off their boots before entering the house. And Mr. Brady said the house is largely the way Mr. White left it, after he died in 1938, with an original front door, too.

That is, aside from an updated kitchen, bathrooms and pool out back—a few modern necessities that even a classical architect can enjoy.

Like his home, Mr. Brady is well-manicured. At 63, his graying hair is combed back and his strong jaw clean shaven. His clothes are pressed and feet bare while he’s at home. He isn’t one to mumble, and he’s got a deep laughter that echoes off the walls and hardwood floors. He often fidgets with his wedding ring.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Mr. Brady was charmed by the history and presentation of historic structures. After spending three years in Greece designing consulate buildings for the Ministry of Saudi Arabia and falling in love with his first spouse, Martha, Mr. Brady moved to New York working under I. M. Pei, designing the sculptural staircase that descends the Louvre Pyramid. He and Martha rented in the Hamptons for many of their summers, but once they moved back to Philadelphia to raise a family in the late 1980s, the South Fork became a home away from home.

Mr. Brady divorced his wife in 1996 and bought his first Hamptons house on Sherrill Road in East Hampton in the late 1990s with his business and life partner, Franco Biscardi.

Mr. Brady moved his practice from Philadelphia to Southampton Village in 2005. He and Mr. Biscardi married in December 2011 while living on Layton Avenue in the village. Same-sex marriage was just legalized in New York in June of that year.

“We were both at work and we had our drapery maker as a witness and another shopkeeper as a witness, and Mark Epley, the mayor at the time, married us on the spot,” Mr. Brady laughed.

Mr. Biscardi died in April this year after battling cancer for nearly two years.

“It’s been tough, to be honest,” Mr. Brady said.

In 2014, not long before Mr. Biscardi was diagnosed, they bought the house on Post Crossing—the dream home they made with each other.

Through the front door, visitors are greeted with a small entry hall. The dining room is on the left. The living room is on the right. There’s a landing halfway up a staircase leading to the master bedroom and two second-floor guest bedrooms.

The rooms are often inhabited by Mr. Brady’s children: Aly, 31, an architect who runs Brady Designs in Philadelphia, and Pat, 30, who works in business development for a San Francisco software firm.

There is a not-so-secret doorway and back staircase at the landing that leads down into the kitchen area, which is also accessed from the living room and butler’s pantry off the dining room. A century-old lantern is now the hall’s featured chandelier. The copper has weathered green from its years hanging in a gazebo on a property on Hill Street. The lights are flicked on from an old-fashioned push-button switch.

The main feature of the living room is an oversized fireplace that was used for cooking. A long iron hook that a pot would hang on swings out from over the fire grate. The mantel is oak. The fireplace is brick painted black. The hardwood floors are original, too.

“Our style of decorating sort of mimics our style of life,” Mr. Brady said. “Everything is really calm, and we don’t really have a lot of pattern anywhere.”

The interior is a real melding of the minds of Brady and Biscardi. The classic architecture appears preserved and pristine, and complemented by soft gray and blue palettes, rough jute and seagrass textures and antique finds, “which gives everything a bit more character and makes you feel a bit more homey.” For instance, old framed architectural prints hang from the wall. The upstairs is a bit more colorful with soft greens and apricot brightening smaller rooms—although the light filtering in from the 16-pane, double-hung windows doesn’t hurt.

There’s an industrial vibe to the kitchen.

“Franco wasn’t particularly fussy about what the kitchen looks like. It’s more about how it functions,” he said. The centerpiece is a stainless steel restaurant preparation table with pots and pans underneath. Nautical light fixtures illuminate the island. Abused marble countertops lead to top-notch appliances.

When Mr. Brady met his husband in the 1990s, Mr. Biscardi was an attorney by day and a sous chef for Mario Batali in his restaurant Pó in the West Village by night.

“He was really struggling with being in the restaurant business and being a lawyer and really not knowing what to do,” Mr. Brady recalled. “And my practice in Philadelphia was bursting at the seams and we were starting to do decorating along with the architecture. And he just had a great flare for design. … He became my partner in the business. He did the decorating, shopping for clients, and I did the architecture. It was a great fit.”

He has been trying to keep busy since his partner passed. Every morning, Mr. Brady starts his day with a mile swim in the pool, followed by some light reading and journaling before he walks to work down the road on Main Street. In his free time, he plays golf and tennis, too.

“A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles, “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer, and Elin Hilderbrand beach-read novels are spread across the kitchen table, alongside a steaming cup of coffee.

It’s obvious by the large coffee table in the family room that Mr. Brady is an avid reader. “The Colonial Revival House” by Richard Guy Wilson and “Creating a New Old House: Yesterday’s Character for Today’s Home” by Russell Versaci are left open. The flat-screen television across from the comfy sectional couch was on more often when Mr. Biscardi was here.

An orange tree that’s planted in an oversized pot in the corner is bearing fruit. The liveliest feature of the house is the pictures scattered around the family room depicting Mr. Brady’s close-knit family.

There’s a door leading out to the pebble driveway and backyard from the family room, as well as from the living room and original back porch. Mr. Brady said work is expected to begin soon on a pool house and garage, but that’s not any indication that he’s looking to sell.

“My kids will one day inherit it and when they have children, grandchildren will come, too,” Mr. Brady said. “This is my home.”