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 List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. 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 The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

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 is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

. 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 SunTrust Banks, Inc. was an American bank holding company with SunTrust Bank as its largest subsidiary and assets of US$199 billion as of March 31, 2018. The bank's most direct corporate parent was established in 1891 in Atlanta, where it was h ...

—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, a residential area connected to the city center by his Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company, which opened along Edgewood Avenue in 1886. It was Atlanta's first electric streetcar 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 A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

, 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 The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...

to design a linear park along Ponce de Leon Avenue, but he sold the enterprise to

Asa Candler Asa Griggs Candler Sr. (December 30, 1851 – March 12, 1929) was an American business tycoon and politician who in 1888 purchased the Coca-Cola recipe for $238.98 () from chemist John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Candler founded th ...

for half a million dollars in 1908. He also built Atlanta's first fireproof theater, the Atlanta Theater (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 Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor that was practiced historically in the Southern United States before it was formally abolished during the 20th century. Under this system, private individuals and corporations could lease la ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

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 still stands near Elizabeth and Euclid Streets in Inman Park. ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' bureau chief Douglas Blackmon's 2009

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-winning book, '' Slavery by Another Name'', 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 businesspeople in real estate History of Atlanta Burials at Oakland Cemetery (Atlanta) University of Georgia alumni Auburn University alumni People from Russell County, Alabama Druid Hills, Georgia