Joel Hurt (1850–1926) was an American businessman. He was the president of Trust Company of Georgia, and a developer in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. He was one of the many founders of SunTrust Bank.

Early life

Hurt was born on July 31, 1850, in

Hurtsboro, Alabama Hurtsboro is a town in Russell County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 553, down from 592 in 2000. It was founded in 1857 as Hurtsville and named for Joel Hurt, Sr. (whose son, Joel Hurt, was an important developer ...

, to Lucy Apperson Long (1822–1915) and Joel Hurt, Sr. (1813–1861). The town was originally named Hurtville for Joel Hurt, Sr. He grew up in the Joel Hurt House. After attending Auburn Methodist College in Auburn, Alabama, for one year, he then enrolled at the University of Georgia in Athens, graduating in 1871 with a degree in civil engineering.

Career

He began his career in the railroad business, surveying first in the western United States the rail bed that became the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. He also surveyed a small spur off the Richmond and Danville line to

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the ...

. In 1875, Hurt moved to Atlanta, where he organized the Atlanta Building and Loan Association, which he ran for thirty-two years. He also co-founded the Trust Company of Georgia—now part of Suntrust—and, starting in 1895, was its president for nine years. In 1882, he organized the East Atlanta Land Company, where he designed and developed

Inman Park Inman Park is an intown neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, and its first planned suburb. It was named for Samuel M. Inman. History Today's neighborhood of Inman Park includes areas that were originally designated * Inman Park ...

, a residential area connected to the city center by his Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company, which opened along

Edgewood Avenue Edgewood Avenue is a street in Atlanta, Georgia, United States which runs from Five Points in Downtown Atlanta, eastward through the Old Fourth Ward. The avenue runs in the direction of the Edgewood neighborhood, and stops just short of it ...

in 1886. It was Atlanta's first

electric streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport a ...

line, and it was the first profitable electric line in America. In 1880, he filed a patent for a thermal water valve and, in 1887, another for a new style of valve cock for faucets handling water under pressure. To anchor the downtown end of his streetcar line, he built Atlanta's first skyscraper, the Equitable Building, which in 1893 became the home of the two-year-old Trust Company. His next land deal was to be

Druid Hills Druid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place (CDP) in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census. The ...

, for which he hired the Olmsted Brothers to design a linear park along

Ponce de Leon Avenue Ponce de Leon Avenue ( ), often simply called Ponce, provides a link between Atlanta, Decatur, Clarkston, and Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was named for Ponce de Leon Springs, in turn from explorer Juan Ponce de León, but is not pronounced ...

, but he sold the enterprise to Asa Candler for half a million dollars in 1908. He also built Atlanta's first fireproof theater, the

Atlanta Theater Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georgia, Fulton County, the mos ...

(also on Edgewood), and his masterpiece, the Hurt Building (which still stands). In 1908, Hurt was unrepentant in hearings which brought out the shocking abuses in the Hurt family's convict labor camps. His callous indifference to evidence that many of his workers had died of abuse, and his viciousness in asserting that convict workers could not be beaten enough, horrified even contemporary Georgians. These hearings led in large part to the banning of convict leasing in Georgia.

Personal life, death and legacy

Hurt married Annie Bright Woodruff, and they had six children. He died in 1926. In 1940, land was donated to the city by the Trust Company and a park was dedicated as Hurt Park which lies across Peachtree Center Ave. from the Hurt Building. The

Joel Hurt Cottage Joel or Yoel is a name meaning "Yahweh Is God" and may refer to: * Joel (given name), origin of the name including a list of people with the first name. * Joel (surname), a surname * Joel (footballer, born 1904), Joel de Oliveira Monteiro, Brazili ...

http://tomitronics.com/old_buildings/hurt%20cottage/index.html still stands near Elizabeth and Euclid Streets in Inman Park. ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' bureau chief

Douglas Blackmon Douglas A. Blackmon (born 1964) is an American writer and journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book, '' Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.'' Early life and education B ...

's 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ''

Slavery by Another Name ''Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II'' is a book by American writer Douglas A. Blackmon, published by Anchor Books in 2008. It explores the forced labor of prisoners, overwhelmingl ...

'', revealed the extent to which Joel Hurt's fortune was built upon the profitable and exploitative use of harshly-disciplined and cruelly-deprived convict labor.

External links

Historical Marker Database - Joel Hurt House

References

*Blackmon, Douglas A., ''Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II'', New York : Doubleday, 2008. *Edge, Sarah, ''Joel Hurt and the Development of Atlanta'', Atlanta Historical Society, 1955 *Lichtenstein, Alex. ''Twice the Work of Free Labor: The Political Economy of Convict Labor in the New South''. New York: Verso, 1996. *Mancini, Matthew J. ''One Dies, Get Another: Convict Leasing in the American South, 1866-1928''. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996. *Martin, Harold, ''Three Strong Pillars'', Trust Company, 1974
A Different Kind of Slavery: After Abolition, Forced Labor Thrived in South; Helping Rebuild Atlanta
''Wall Street Journal'', 2008-03-29 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurt, Joel 1850 births 1926 deaths American real estate businesspeople History of Atlanta Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta) University of Georgia alumni Auburn University alumni People from Russell County, Alabama Druid Hills, Georgia