Category: W.L. Stoddart

A good idea never dies, as proven by G.L. Norrman‘s design for the New York Herald Building at the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta.

More of a booth than a building, the structure’s primary purpose was to distribute copies of the New York Herald to exposition visitors, with the added service of delivering letters and telegrams sent to tourists from their friends and family in the North.²

The structure was built of cheap wood and intended to last for the duration of the exposition: a little over 3 months.³ But Norrman rarely did anything by half, so the booth was designed as a tiny tetrastyle temple — complete with a raised podium, a porch with 4 Ionic columns, and a decorative frieze and pediment. The entire building was also painted white,⁴ giving it the full classical effect.

Norrman’s inspiration for the project clearly came from his own 1892 design for the Georgia State Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

As conceived by Norrman, the Georgia State Building was to be a 50-by-150-foot hexastyle temple made entirely of Georgia materials,⁶ including “liberal use of parti-colored marbles”,⁷ marble tile floors, a terra cotta roof,⁸ and “dressed wood effects” to “remind the traveled beholder of the sublime artistic effects so frequently produced in Venetian and Florentine buildings”.⁹

The project wasn’t executed, as the state of Georgia couldn’t secure enough space for it at the exposition.^{10 11} Additionally, the estimated $10,000 building¹² had to be funded entirely by private donations, which failed to materialize.¹³

Norrman was obviously pleased with his design, however: Early in the project’s development, he suggested that the Georgia State Building be “lithographed and copyrighted”, with proceeds funding its construction.¹⁴

And the building was indeed lithographed — Norrman’s then-assistant, W.L. Stoddart, drew an exquisite pen-and-ink wash of the proposed design (pictured above), which was published in the American Architect and Building News in July 1892.

An illustration of the building was also entered into the Architectural League of New York’s 8th annual exhibition in January 1893, which included designs from the World’s Columbian Exposition. In describing the show, The Architectural and Building Monthly singled out Norrman’s design from 15 other state entries, writing somewhat inaccurately:

. “…the Georgian design by G.L. Norrman, of Atlanta, is the only one which can be considered an exponent of a type. The design is characteristic of the Sunny South, where the public buildings have always been more ornate and graceful than in the more material North. It is of the Grecian temple style, but there is enough originality and boldness in the treatment to defend the architect from any suggestion of a too slavish conservatism. There is a beautiful proportion carried out in the details, and the whole is a harmonious picture.”¹⁵

Given its positive reception in New York, it’s fitting that Norrman adapted his world’s fair design for a New York newspaper, no matter how short-lived its use: Following the close of the Cotton States Exposition, the New York Herald Building was demolished in January 1896.^{16 17}

References

1. “Herald’s Booth At Atlanta”. New York Herald, October 20, 1895, p. 10. ↩︎
2. ibid. ↩︎
3. ibid. ↩︎
4. ibid. ↩︎
5. American Architect and Building News, Vol. 38, No. 864 (July 16, 1892). ↩︎
6. “The Georgia Building.” The Atlanta Constitution, July 25, 1892, p. 6. ↩︎
7. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
8. “The Georgia Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1892, p. 15. ↩︎
9. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
10. “Georgia’s Exhibit”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 22, 1892, p. 7. ↩︎
11. “The Governor Talks”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 30, 1892, p. 5. ↩︎
12. ibid. ↩︎
13. “The Georgia Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1892, p. 15. ↩︎
14. “Georgia At The Fair.” The Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1892, p. 8. ↩︎
15. “Architectural League Exhibition.” The California Architect and Building News, Vol. 14, No. 3 (March 1893), p. 32. ↩︎
16. “To Tear It Down”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 14, 1896, p. 7. ↩︎
17. “Left In Ruins Now”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 19, 1896, p. 7. ↩︎
18. Photo credit: Roth, Darlene R. and Jeff Kemph, editors. Piedmont Park: Atlanta’s Common Ground. Athens, Georgia: Hill Street Press (2004), p. 28. ↩︎

The Background

The 8-story Equitable Building was Atlanta’s first “skyscraper” when it opened in 1892. Built by Joel Hurt’s East Atlanta Land Company — a major client of G.L. Norrman‘s at the time — the Equitable wasn’t designed by Norrman but by John Wellborn Root of Burnham & Root² in Chicago, one of the leading American architects of the era and a Georgia native.

Riding high on his own commercial and creative success of the early 1890s, Norrman was one of the Equitable Building’s original tenants³ and had perhaps the best view in Atlanta with a top-floor studio that spanned multiple suites,⁴ described as “brilliantly lighted, opening eastward”.⁵

On December 17, 1892, Norrman was profiled as part of an Atlanta Journal article about the building’s occupants, appropriately titled “The Equitable”.

The profile, published below, provides a few previously undisclosed details about Norrman’s early life, primarily regarding his education in Sweden and his international travels. It also indicates that Norrman emigrated to the United States in 1874, which he confirmed in the 1900 census,⁶ although in his 1897 passport application, he claimed to have entered the country in the fall of 1872.⁷

Norrman’s reluctance to reveal his age is also pointedly mentioned, and it seems he was self-conscious about the subject — in both the 1880 and 1900 censuses, Norrman reported himself as 2 years younger than his actual age.^{8 9} Given the fudging on his passport application, perhaps he just liked being mischievous with dates.

The article’s emphasis on his training is also notable, as Norrman was the only Atlanta architect at the time who had any formal education. The city’s other architects were all either self-taught or trained under other designers, and the difference is apparent when you compare their often crude vernacular creations to Norrman’s more sophisticated designs.

The profile has several minor errors, including misspelling Norrman’s name (3 times), erroneously stating that he came to Atlanta in 1882 (it was 1881¹⁰), and referring to his first partnership as “Weed & Normann”, although it was Norrman & Weed.

The sketch also mentions the “Charlotte Hotel, Charlotte, N.C.”, although I’m not aware of any hotel designed by Norrman in that city. The name likely refers to Norrman’s design for the Hotel Carrolina (1891) in Durham, North Carolina, or it could also refer to the City Hall (1893) in Charlotte, then under construction.

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“An Educated Architect”

Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, others have bachelorhood thrust upon them.

Now, the gentleman who occupies 829 on the eighth floor of the Equitable building is not only the architect of his own fortunes but the fortunes of a vast many others.

He is a lover of the beautiful, but has never been able to satisfy himself as to which style of architecture he would prefer in a wife.

In Southern Sweden his honest eyes first saw the light. He elected to be a designer and architect.

He finished his regular educational course in the finest school of Stockholm.

Then he made a tour of southern Europe and spent a time in Great Britain, studying all the different styles of architecture and the technique of different designers, from the age of sixteen until he proved himself one of the best draftsmen and one of the most ardent lovers of artistic architecture. He then spent a time in South America.

He has been at work for twenty-five years—eighteen in America—but he refuses, or rather, declines to make his age known because of the fact that he is still a bachelor of marriageable age and still hopes to meet with a companion of the opposite sex who would be willing to share his lot in a cottage of his own.

After coming to this country eighteen years ago this gentleman served as a draughtsman under various architects. He came to Atlanta in 1882 [sic], and was with his partner, Mr. Weed, under the firm name of Weed & Normann [sic], one of the architects of the Cotton Exposition buildings.

Of course you know who he is now—Mr. G.L. Normann [sic], whose splendid work as a finished architect is of national repute.

Among his finest tasks are some of the buildings that are monuments in Atlanta as well as other southern cities. He designed the Gate City bank building, the Piedmont exposition buildings, the beautiful Hebrew Orphan’s home, the elegant Hirsch building, the Edgewood school building, many of the handsome business houses and dwellings on Peachtree street and Edgewood avenue, and is now engaged on the new Bell Telephone building which will be one of the handsomest in the city.

Then he has designed many elegant buildings otherwheres, including the Armstrong hotel, Rome, Ga.; the Printup house and many beautiful homes in Gadsden, Ala. The aristocratic Windsor hotel, Americus, Ga.; the court house at Waycross, Ga.; the Charlotte hotel, Charlotte, N.C. [sic]; the Sweetwater Park hotel at Lithia Springs and many others.

Mr. Norrman is not only thoroughly conversant with all that pertains to his profession, but he looks on his work with the eye of an artist.

“I prefer the classic,” he said to a reporter, “for libraries, school houses, courthouses and all buildings of an educational character, as most proper. For depots and hotels any style will do, but I prefer the Romanesque for depots and the renaissance for hotels and homes as being more homelike and less business like in appearance. Churches I like Romanesque because the growth of the church and that style of architecture are so closely identified.

The so-called ‘colonial style’ of the old southern mansions is rennaissance [sic] so far as the builders were able to carry that style in those olden days, and it has recently come again into popular favor because of the sentiment that clings about those honored halls.”

Mr. Normann [sic] is a most interesting talker, thoroughly conversant with and in love with his art, and one can fail to be interested in talking with him if he is a bachelor of uncertain age.”¹³

References

1. Sparks, Andrew. “Turmoil Among the Turrets”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine, March 7, 1971, p. 26. ↩︎
2. “A Big Building.” The Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1891, p. 6. ↩︎
3. “G.L. Norrman. Architect.” (advertisement). The Atlanta Constitution, June 26, 1892, p. 5. ↩︎
4. Atlanta City Directory Co.’s Greater Atlanta (Georgia) city directory (1893) ↩︎
5. “In the Equitable.” The Atlanta Constitution, May 31, 1892, p. 7. ↩︎
6. 1900 U.S. Census, Fulton County, Georgia, pop. sch., p. B1, Majestic Hotel, Norman, Godfry L. [Godfrey L. Norrman] ↩︎
7. United States Passport Application no. 7175 for Godfrey L. Norman dated July 22, 1897. ↩︎
8. 1880 U.S. census, Spartanburg County, South Carolina, population schedule, p. 45, dwelling 412, family 468, Norman, G.L [G.L. Norrman] ↩︎
9. 1900 U.S. Census, Fulton County, Georgia, pop. sch., p. B1, Majestic Hotel, Norman, Godfrey L. [Godfrey L. Norrman] ↩︎
10. “Messrs. Norrman & Weed.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 2, 1881, p. 9. ↩︎
11. “Fulton Welfare Building Demolition Begins”. The Atlanta Journal, November 18, 1952, p. 31. ↩︎
12. American Architect and Building News, vol. 41, no. 914 (July 1, 1893). ↩︎
13. “An Educated Architect”. The Atlanta Journal, December 17, 1892, p. 9. ↩︎

The Background

In June 1899, The Atlanta Constitution launched “The Constitution‘s Home Study Circle”, consisting of long-form printed lectures on a variety of subjects, with the promise of “instruction and general culture for those who make the most of its benefits”.

Upon announcement of the program, G.L. Norrman wrote the Constitution to express his tentative approval, as seen in this letter “From Mr. G.L. Norrman.”, published on June 8, 1899.

Norrman’s remarks:

‘The “Home Study Circle” is on the right line. I am not familiar with the details of your plan, but a glance at your course of free lessons for your readers convinces me that they will be of great value to those who will give them proper attention. Education and culture cannot be purchased in job lots, nor picked up in the road, but some systems and methods are easier and more attractive than others, and I think that your scheme of popular instruction is a good one, and will be appreciate by hosts of old and new readers.’

Very sincerely,

G.L. NORRMAN²

References

1. American Architect and Building News, vol. 38, no. 883 (November 26, 1892). ↩︎
2. “From Mr. G.L. Norrman”. The Atlanta Constitution, June 9, 1899, p. 4. ↩︎

Hiding in plain sight in Atlanta’s Inman Park neighborhood, the C. D. Hurt Residence isn’t conspicuous, nor does it appear especially significant.

Located at 36 Delta Place NE, this rambling 2-story, eclectic-style home is primarily Colonial Revival in influence, with its wood shingles, steep gables, overhanging second floor, and assortment of oddly-shaped windows recalling the vernacular designs of coastal New England architecture.

It’s good to have a little doubt when attributing buildings to architects, but in this case, there’s no need: the home can be indisputably credited to G.L. Norrman.

Often erroneously dated to 1891 or 1892, the house was built in 1893, based on an April 1893 report from The Atlanta Constitution¹ and another from The Atlanta Journal in May 1893² — both stated that the home was then in the course of construction.

Dr. Charles D. Hurt was the brother of Joel Hurt, president of the East Atlanta Land Company, which owned and developed the Inman Park suburb. Norrman appears to have been Joel Hurt’s preferred architect at the time, completing as many as 8 projects for his companies and family in the late 1880s and early 1890s, so he would have been an obvious choice to design the home.

The Design

Beyond circumstantial evidence, the Hurt house can be handily attributed to Norrman based on specific elements that it shares with 2 residences designed by his firm in the same period: the R.O. Barksdale Residence (1893) in Washington, Georgia, which still exists, and the Paul Romare Residence in Atlanta (1892, demolished).

Similarities between the Hurt Residence and the Barksdale Residence:

• The facades of both houses feature a prominent bay with 2 windows on the second floor and a Palladian window on the first, topped by a hip roof.
• Both houses share the same chimney designs, slightly tapered at the top, with distinctive dentilled string courses.
• Both houses originally featured a tall, exposed chimney on the front porch as a central focal point.
• Both houses include porches with dentilled cornices and Norrman’s trademark Tuscan columns.

Similarities between the Hurt Residence and the Romare Residence:

• Both houses were topped with a steeply pitched hip roof.
• Both houses included an oval window, also featured in Norrman’s design for the Thomas W. Latham Residence in Inman Park.
• Both houses included an exposed chimney as a focal point, each embedded with the same classically styled niche (illustrated below)

Similarities between the Hurt Residence and other Norrman projects:

• The Hurt house’s dormer windows are of the same design as those on the Edward C. Peters Residence (1883) in Atlanta, a confirmed Norrman work, and the Atlanta & Edgewood Street Railway Shed (1889), also located in Inman Park and attributed to Norrman.
• The Hurt house’s second-floor bay window is the same used in the Atlanta & Edgewood Railway Shed, attributed to Norrman.

An Evolution

Although fairly unremarkable in appearance, the Hurt house represents a major shift in Norrman’s residential designs.

In the 1880s and early 1890s, many of Norrman’s larger home plans included a rear service wing that contained the kitchen and servants’ quarters — a prime example can be seen in the W.W. Duncan Residence in Spartanburg, South Carolina (1886, pictured below).

The service wing was visually distinct from the main house and was typically capped with a low-slung hip roof, denoting its modest, utilitarian status.

For the Hurt house, the hip-roofed wing shifted from the back to the front, the first time this appears to have been implemented in one of Norrman’s plans. It was a bold and avant-garde choice, signalling a shift in taste toward less fussy and unpretentious styles that took hold in the 1890s.

Norrman produced refined versions of the design into the 20th century, including the W.L. Reynolds Residence (1897, pictured below) and the Leon D. Lewman Residence (1901, demolished, pictured below) in Atlanta.

By the late 1890s, Norrman fully embraced lower roof lines, but in the Hurt house, the main portion of the structure still included a fantastically high roof — undoubtedly topped with decorative finials — a holdover from his 1880s work.

The Hurt house’s 13-room floor plan evolved from the plan used in Norrman’s design for the John T. Taylor Residence (1892) in Americus, Georgia.

The Taylor house appears to have been planned on a simple four-square grid, with the entry room and stairway occupying the lower left quadrant. In the Hurt house, however, the introduction of the front wing meant the entry room and stairwell had to be pushed slightly back, opening up space for an additional room to the left of the front door.

Otherwise, the plans for the two houses are largely identical, right down to the separate exterior entrance in each master bedroom.

A Question of Credit

I suspect much of the Hurt house was designed by one or more of Norrman’s employees, possibly C. Walter Smith, Norrman’s longtime draughtsman and later chief assistant.

Smith began working for Norrman in 1887, remaining as a draughtsman for over 5 years, before he left to start his own practice in March 1893.⁴ Smith returned to Norrman’s employment within a year as his chief assistant,⁵ but left to start his business again in April 1896,⁶ working independently until 1907.

Based on his few surviving works, Smith was not an exceptional designer on his own: he clearly lacked whatever combination of ingredients made Norrman such an outstanding architect. However, it appears that Norrman likely delegated many of his residential projects to Walter Smith in the 1890s.

The Constitution all but said as much in 1896, when Smith embarked on his second solo attempt:

“The work that he did even before he branched out for himself had gained for him a distinction that few people have won in a lifetime,” the newspaper noted. “Mr. Smith has designed and superintended the construction of many of the most elegant residences in the city…”⁷

If you compare a typical Norrman residence from the 1880s to one from the 1890s, it’s clear that the latter projects didn’t receive nearly as much of his attention.

Norrman’s career reached its commercial and creative peak between 1890 and 1893, and he increasingly spent much of his time crossing the Southeastern United States by train, securing commissions, and attending to building projects.

With a packed schedule and an office full of assistants, Norrman undoubtedly began focusing most of his attention on large-scale or prestige commissions: the Windsor Hotel (1892) in Americus, Georgia, for instance, or the J.C. Simonds Residence (1893) in Charleston, South Carolina.

Because Walter Smith left to form his practice when the Hurt house was under construction, it’s also possible that he started the project, and another assistant was tasked with completing it, which could explain the uneven design.

W.L. Stoddart, for instance, was also employed by Norrman in 1893, still fresh from his training at Columbia University. When Norrman hired him in March 1892, the Journal claimed Stoddart would be his chief assistant,⁸ although he was listed as a draughtsman in city directories.⁹

Every architect’s approach is different, but Norrman may have roughed out the preliminary plans for the project, leaving a draughtsman or assistant to fill in the details, while lending just enough of his finesse to claim the design as his own.

The Hurt home’s north elevation also bears a striking resemblance to the side of the William Merritt Chase Homestead in New York, designed by McKim, Mead & White in 1892. Norrman frequently borrowed from the firm’s designs, and if he was pressed for time and lacking inspiration, it’s possible that he reproduced what he saw in a photograph or drawing of the home.

A Messy Composition

If Norrman didn’t give the Hurt design much scrutiny, that might explain its frankly sloppy configuration: the 3 bay windows of varying sizes on the north side, for example, and the hodge-podge of incongruent elements borrowed from other projects.

Part of the imbalance can be explained by the home’s vernacular inspiration, but that doesn’t excuse its incoherent composition. Stand on one side of the Hurt house, and it looks like a completely different home from the other. The design feels clunky, slapdash, and pure kitchen sink, as if everything but was thrown into it.

It should be noted that Norrman also disliked the then-fashionable Colonial style, stating in 1890 that it had “at best, a number of absurdities”, and that “there are few who carry the style out well”. As a designer who excelled in the Romanesque and preferred the classical, he may have been admitting to his own lack of proficiency in the style.

Despite the Hurt house’s shortcomings, it’s entirely characteristic of Norrman’s 1893 residential designs, which stand out in his oeuvre as especially freewheeling and audacious. He was the most celebrated and sought-after architect in the Southeast at that point, and clearly felt emboldened to take risks.

When the risk-taking worked, the results were spectacular: the Simonds Residence, for example. When it didn’t? Well, you can see the results here.

Construction and History

The Hurt House’s history is as messy as its design, chock-full of the sort of macabre and pathetic tales one expects from an Atlanta home.

A Whole Lotta Hurt

C. D. Hurt and his family moved to the city from Columbus, Georgia, in October 1892.^{10 11} Until their own “elegant and roomy residence”¹² was completed, the Hurts temporarily lived in the spec house at 56 Euclid Avenue¹³ (now 882 Euclid Avenue NE), which Norrman designed for the East Atlanta Land Company in 1890.

Curiously, while Hurt’s home was still being built in April 1893, it was also the site of a wedding for his niece, Lucy Hurt McTyere.¹⁵

Hurt had 5 children with his wife, Mary, although it appears only his daughters Louise and Maude still lived with them in 1893, when he was 50, and she was 46.

Hurt worked as a medical surgeon and opened an office in Atlanta’s Equitable Building,¹⁶ which his brother owned. He was also on the payroll of his brother’s street railway company as a “medical advisor” — with whatever legitimate duties that must have entailed — in addition to being a staff member at Grady Memorial Hospital and the Atlanta School of Medicine.^{17 18}

There have been claims that Hurt operated his office from his home, but that appears to be inaccurate based on city directories and newspaper reports.

Hurt’s daughter Louise was married in January 1895, and the reception was held at the Hurt house.^{19 20} Assuming it was a happy occasion, the wedding was a singular bright spot preceding a long line of tragedies in the home:

• On July 5, 1896, Hurt’s 8-month-old grandson, Charles, died in the home after a bout with malaria.²¹
• On July 19, 1898, Hurt’s youngest daughter, Maude, died in the home at 6:45 p.m., following a 10-day illness.²² Only 17 years old, Maude’s death was described by the Constitution as “one of the saddest deaths that have clouded this city in years…”²³
• In September 1899, Charles and Joel Hurt’s brother, E.F. Hurt, died on an extended visit from New York, and his funeral was held in the Hurt house.²⁴
• After a 2-year illness, Mary Hurt died on October 22, 1902, “when death crept softly into the home,” according to the Journal. ^{25 26} Poetic, no?
• Wasting little time, C.D. Hurt married his second wife, Annie Louise Miller, in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on October 6, 1903. Annie was described as an “accomplished and attractive young woman,” ²⁷ and the couple had an unnamed infant son when Hurt himself died in the home on August 12, 1906, following an 8-month illness.^{28 29}

After collecting on Hurt’s $15,000 life insurance policy,³⁰ his accomplished and attractive young wife seemingly disappeared from Atlanta, and the home was presumably sold, ending the Hurts’ run of the house after 13 years.

Dwindling Fortunes

Never the prestigious enclave Joel Hurt intended it to be, Inman Park had become quite passe by the early 1900s.

Most of Atlanta’s prominent citizens continued to build their mansions on Peachtree Street, migrating further north of the city each year. Ansley Park was quickly becoming the fashionable new residential section, mostly because of its proximity to Peachtree Street.

The Inman Park residences designed by Norrman and other architects in the previous decade were already quaint relics of another era. With the United States emerging from a years-long financial depression, even the wealthy preferred more subdued home designs, and the gaudy mansions of the Gilded Age were seen as oversized, ostentatious, and out of fashion.

Inman Park’s original homes had spent most of their lives vacant or on the market — scan newspaper classified ads from the 1890s and early 1900s, and you’ll consistently find listings for “good as new” Inman Park homes for sale or rent, often reduced in price.

The remaining lots in Inman Park were auctioned off en masse by the East Atlanta Land Company in 1904,³¹ and the neighborhood was filled out with mostly smaller, cheaper houses over the next decade.

As the Journal deftly noted in 1908: “The Inman Park of the present time…has almost forgotten the story of its origin–which now seems like ancient history…”³²

Life As a Boarding House

The large, antiquated Inman Park houses were really only viable as rental properties, so it’s no surprise that in December 1907, newspaper classifieds began requesting boarders for the former Hurt house. Terse but descriptive, the first ads touted: “Beautiful views, splendid board, country air, not far out.”³³

A January 1908 ad sought “Two or three young men for large front room; also couple for beautiful room,”³⁴ while an October 1908 ad noted the home’s “Suite beautiful rooms, with private bath…”³⁵

In November 1908, ads described “Four connecting rooms, unfurnished…private entrance”,³⁶ which likely referred to the home’s original master bedroom. In 1909, the entire house was listed for rent by Edwin P. Ansley‘s real estate agency for $50 a month.³⁷

On March 25, 1909, a 68 mph “hurricane” ripped across Atlanta, cutting a path from West End through Downtown to Inman Park. In a lengthy list of damaged buildings, the Journal reported that “In Inman Park at Edgewood avenue and Delta Place a chimney was blown down.”³⁸

This may have been the tall chimney at the front of the house, which was removed at some point in the structure’s history. A photograph from the 1970s shows that a chunk of one chimneystack was also missing, possibly a result of the same storm.

In February 1910, the home was owned by C. Horace McCall when a “daring porch climber” broke the window of a second-floor bathroom.

“Mrs. Turner“, apparently a boarder in the house, screamed upon hearing the shattered window, scaring off the intruder. The Constitution noted ominously that “A dark shadow was seen in the distance…but no clews [sic] were obtained.”

The report added: “This section of the city has been infested with burglars recently, and several citizens have made complaint of inadequate police protection.”³⁹

In July 1918, McCall and his wife still lived in the home when thieves robbed their backyard hen house, swiping their entire collection, including 20 “frying-size chickens”. The stolen property totalled $30.⁴⁰

Mrs. McCall died in the house on February 28, 1923,⁴¹ and it appears the property was sold shortly thereafter. In July 1924, another infant died in the home: the son of two boarders, Mr. and Mrs. J.B. McMillam.

By the 1920s, Atlanta had rapidly grown past Inman Park’s borders, and the former suburb was fully absorbed into the city. One mile northeast of the neighborhood, Druid Hills opened in 1908 (Norrman designed its first home), and many of Inman Park’s prominent residents — notably members of the Candler family — migrated to the outlying development for the next several years.

As Inman Park fell into decades-long decline, the old Hurt home passed through a succession of owners, always operating as a boarding house, and apparently attracting the caliber of people one associates with such establishments. A few incidents from those years are intriguing:

• In 1925, the house was owned by the estate of the late John W. White when a 36-year-old boarder, Mrs. W.T. Hooks, was arrested for attempted arson. On May 4 of that year, fire crews were called to the home at 4 a.m., where they found a burning pile of kindling wood in Hooks’ closet, with Hooks “fully dressed and all her trunks completely packed”. The state accused Hooks of attempting to burn down the home for insurance money, but she was acquitted of the charges in June 1925.^{42 43 44 45 46}
• In 1929, a 31-year-old occupant of the home named T.M. Bates was treated at Grady Memorial Hospital for wounds received from a “vicious rat” that reportedly bit Bates twice as he was going to sleep, after which he “jumped on top of a dresser to escape further injury”.⁴⁷
• In January 1931, Fanny Jolly operated the boarding house when “the careless handling of an oil lamp” led to a fire breaking out in the kitchen, causing the home’s 11 occupants to “flee in their night clothing”. One boarder was knocked unconscious when he jumped 15 feet from his second-story window, while another received severe cuts on his legs from crawling out a different window.^{48 49}

In 1945, W.A. and Gertrude Croft bought the home from Harry Beerman.⁵⁰ Real estate ads described the home as an “excellent rooming house” and “convenient to stores and cars”, concluding rather cynically that “This is a money-maker”.⁵¹

This may have been when the home received its most significant alterations. In August 1946, classified ads from the address listed a “Monarch coal cook stove, gas cook stove…2 practically new glass paneled doors, 2 used windows” for sale.⁵² Sounds like they were tearing the place up, doesn’t it?

An image from the 1970s (pictured below) shows that at some point, the home’s front porch had been partially filled in and screened, rooms had been clumsily added to the porch roof, and original windows were moved and replaced. I suspect those alterations could be attributed to the Crofts.

Inman Park was in the nascent stages of a rebirth in the 1970s, when affluent young professionals began restoring its old homes and joined forces to quash a proposed interstate highway that would have cut through the heart of the neighborhood.

Rundown and crime-ridden, “most people avoided the area”, the Constitution said in 1975, and not everyone was convinced the neighborhood was worth saving.⁵⁴

A skeptical article from 1971 described Inman Park as “a festering little carbuncle on the hide of big old Atlanta”, with residents detailing the precarious condition of the area. One homeowner stated:

“If you’ve got a sense of humor, it’s a great place to live. Over here, when people shoot guns they usually aim into the ceiling. There’s a lot of drug traffic in the neighborhood with the kids. They are very wise, like New York street children. I took one little girl to Grady while she was on a bad LSD trip. She was in the middle of the street screaming and everybody else was afraid to do anything. Hard drugs are apparently very available.”⁵⁵

Little wonder that the old Hurt house remained a target for crime — in January 1975, the home was burglarized again, with the thief swiping a tape recorder, clock, liquor, and 8 cartons of cigarettes.⁵⁶

Despondency seems to have been the way of life in the home, and in August 1976, a 47-year-old boarder at the address committed suicide in the most Atlanta way possible: jumping from the top of the Hyatt Regency atrium.⁵⁷

Return to Form

In 1981, the home was once again listed for sale, remaining on the market for nearly 2 years under two different agencies.

A succession of real estate advertisements sounded increasingly desperate, first promoting the house as “Single family OR townhouse. Partially restored. Clean & livable” with “POOL & wine cellar”. ⁵⁸ Later ads proclaimed the home had “suburban amenities”.⁵⁹

An ad for an open house breathlessly hyped: “13 Fireplaces, antique brass & beveled glass, arches, millwork & pocket doors!”⁶⁰ Norrman always did like pocket doors.

A May 1982 ad claimed that “Practical people will love the close-in convenient location and the fact that it can be used for rental units.”⁶¹ That was oddly out of step with the changing character of the neighborhood, however — it wasn’t practical people who were buying in Inman Park at that point, but those invested in its resurgent vision.

By the 1990s, Inman Park had completed its dramatic revitalization, drawing national acclaim, and the Hurt house finally returned to its intended use as a private dwelling.

The home has been fully renovated, with the mid-20th-century accretions on the front removed, and the porch and facade returned to a reasonable facsimile of its original appearance.

Inman Park is now one of the most exclusive and desirable neighborhoods in intown Atlanta, with homes like the Hurt house valued in the millions. More than a century after its conception, Joel Hurt’s development is finally a success.

And as for his brother’s home — well, it’s more significant than it appears.

References

1. “City Notes.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 2, 1893, p. 23. ↩︎
2. “Flowers Are A-Blooming.” The Atlanta Journal, May 5, 1893, p. 3. ↩︎
3. “New Lewman Residence On Peachtree Place.” The Atlanta Constitution, October 6, 1901, p. 5. ↩︎
4. “A Card”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 1, 1893, p. 10. ↩︎
5. Atlanta City Directory Co.’s Greater Atlanta (Georgia) city directory (1894) ↩︎
6. “Out For Himself.” The Atlanta Constitution, April 19, 1896, p. 20. ↩︎
7. ibid. ↩︎
8. “A Trifle Gossipy.” The Atlanta Journal, March 25, 1892, p. 1. ↩︎
9. Atlanta City Directory Co.’s Greater Atlanta (Georgia) city directory (1893) ↩︎
10. “Personal Mention.” The Atlanta Journal, September 12, 1892, p. 1. ↩︎
11. “Senator Gordon.” The Atlanta Journal, September 24, 1892, p. 1. ↩︎
12. “Flowers Are A-Blooming.” The Atlanta Journal, May 5, 1893, p. 3. ↩︎
13. Atlanta City Directory Co.’s Greater Atlanta (Georgia) city directory (1893) ↩︎
14. Marr, Christine V. and Sharon Foster Jones. Inman Park. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, South Carolina, 2008. ↩︎
15. “Society”. The Atlanta Journal, April 19, 1893, p. 2. ↩︎
16. Atlanta City Directory Co.’s Greater Atlanta (Georgia) city directory (1893) ↩︎
17. “Dr. Chas. Hurt Yields to Death”. The Atlanta Constitution, August 13, 1906, p. 1. ↩︎
18. “Dr. C.D. Hurt Dead: Ill 8 Months”. The Atlanta Journal, August 13, 1906, p. 5. ↩︎
19. “Carlton-Hurt” The Atlanta Constitution, February 15, 1895, p. 3. ↩︎
20. “Today’s Talk in Society”. The Atlanta Journal, January 23, 1895, p. 7. ↩︎
21. “Little Child’s Death.” The Atlanta Journal, July 6, 1897, p. 5. ↩︎
22. “Death of Miss Hurt.” The Atlanta Constitution. July 20, 1898, p. 55. ↩︎
23. “In Memory of Miss Mary Maude Hurt.” The Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1898, p. 15. ↩︎
24. “Death Has Come to Mr. E.F. Hurt”. The Atlanta Journal, September 18, 1899, p. 3. ↩︎
25. “Mrs. Mary Hurt Is Dead After Years of Illness” The Atlanta Journal, October 23, 1902, p. 7. ↩︎
26. “Miss Mary Hurt Is Dead After Long Illness”. The Atlanta Journal, October 22, 1902, p. 8. ↩︎
27. “Miss Miller of N.C. Weds Dr. C.D. Hurt.” The Atlanta Journal, October 6, 1903, p. 10. ↩︎
28. “Dr. Chas. Hurt Yields to Death”. The Atlanta Constitution, August 13, 1906, p. 1. ↩︎
29. “Dr. C.D. Hurt Dead; Ill 8 Months”. The Atlanta Journal, August 13, 1906, p. 5. ↩︎
30. “Wil of Dr. Hurt Has Been Probated”. The Atlanta Journal, August 16, 1906, p. 5. ↩︎
31. “Big Auction Sale May 31.” The Atlanta Constitution, May 22, 1904, p. 8. ↩︎
32. “Inman Park, Atlanta’s First Suburb, Has Developed Into One of the City’s Most Beautiful Resident Sections”. The Atlanta Journal, April 26, 1908, p. H5. ↩︎
33. “Wanted–Boarders.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 8, 1907, p. 3D. ↩︎
34. “Wanted–Boarders.” The Atlanta Constitution, January 5, 1908, p. 4. ↩︎
35. “Wanted–Boarders.” The Atlanta Constitution, October 1, 1908, p. 10. ↩︎
36. “For Rent–Rooms”. The Atlanta Journal, November 8, 1908, p. H9. ↩︎
37. “For Rent by Edwin P. Ansley”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 14, 1909, p. 3. ↩︎
38. “Scenes of Havoc Wrought By Last Night’s Wind”. The Atlanta Journal, March 25, 1909, p. 1. ↩︎
39. “Burglar Visits Inman Park Home”. The Atlanta Constitution, February 7, 1910, p. 7. ↩︎
40. “C.H. McCall’s Chickens Are Taken By Thieves”. The Atlanta Journal, July 2, 1918, p. 12. ↩︎
41. “Mortuary”. The Atlanta Constitution, March 1, 1923, p. 24. ↩︎
42. “Woman Is Indicted On Arson Charges After Fire in Atlanta”. The Atlanta Journal, June 5, 1925, p. 36. ↩︎
43. “Arson Is Charged To Mrs. W.T. Hooks In Indictment”. The Atlanta Constitution, June 6, 1925, p. 7. ↩︎
44. “Woman’s Trial Begins In Superior Court On Charge of Arson.” The Atlanta Journal, June 25, 1925, p. 5. ↩︎
45. “Woman Is Freed On Arson Charge In Fulton Court”. The Atlanta Constitution, June 26, 1925, p. 3. ↩︎
46. “Woman Is Acquitted On Charge of Setting Fire to House Here”. The Atlanta Journal, June 26, 1925, p. 20. ↩︎
47. “Atlantian Scales Dresser To Escape Vicious Rat”. The Atlanta Journal, September 9, 1929, p. 4. ↩︎
48. “11 Persons Escape, Two Are Injured As House Burns”. The Atlanta Journal, January 7, 1931, p. 14. ↩︎
49. “Two Injured in Fire, Eleven Flee Building”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 8, 1931, p. 6. ↩︎
50. “Adams-Cates Reports $62,600 August Sales”. The Atlanta Journal, August 12, 1945, p. 7-D. ↩︎
51. “Homes for Sale, N.E.” The Atlanta Constitution, May 18, 1945, p. 23. ↩︎
52. “Household Goods”. The Atlanta Constitution, August 24, 1946, p. 6. ↩︎
53. Marr, Christine V. and Sharon Foster Jones. Inman Park. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, South Carolina, 2008. ↩︎
54. Tyson, Jean. “Rebirth: Old Neighborhoods Come Alive Again”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, April 20, 1975, p. 1-G. ↩︎
55. Sparks, Andrew. “Turmoil Among the Turrets”. The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine, March 7, 1971, p. 25. ↩︎
56. “Crime Report”. The Atlanta Constitution, January 3, 1975, p. 4-C. ↩︎
57. “Two Persons Leap to Deaths Here”. The Atlanta Constitution, August 22, 1976, p. 6-A. ↩︎
58. “Bud Bailey Realty”. The Atlanta Constitution, April 29, 1981, Classified p. 12. ↩︎
59. “Downtown Properties”. The Atlanta Constitution, April 4, 1982, Classified p. 16. ↩︎
60. “Open House”. The Atlanta Journal, October 17, 1982, p. 30-J. ↩︎
61. “Downtown Properties”. The Atlanta Journal, May 2, 1982, Classified p. 17. ↩︎