Joel Hurt

Who was Joel Hurt?

Joel Hurt was an important businessman and developer in Atlanta active in the late 19th century through the early 20th century.

Born in Hurtsboro, Alabama, he attended Auburn University and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1871.

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

Hurt moved to Atlanta in 1875 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 which was connected to the city center by his Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company which opened along Edgewood Ave. in 1886. It was Atlanta's first electric streetcar line, and the first profitable electric line in America.