Wyatt C. Hedrick

Wyatt Cephus Hedrick (December 17, 1888 in Chatham, Virginia – May 5, 1964 in Houston, Texas) was an American architect, engineer, and developer most active in Texas and the American South. He began his career as an engineer, working in Virginia and Texas. He started his own firm in Fort Worth, and later merged with the architecture firm of Sanguinet & Staats before buying out the interests of the senior partners.

Wyatt Cephus Hedrick
Born(1888-12-17)December 17, 1888
Chatham, Virginia
DiedMay 5, 1964(1964-05-05) (aged 75)
Houston, Texas
NationalityAmerican
Alma materRoanoke College
Washington and Lee University
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)Pauline Stripling
Mildred Sterling Hedrick
PracticeWyatt Hedrick & Co.
BuildingsAdministration Building
Eudora Welty House
Shamrock Hotel
ProjectsTexas and Pacific Terminal Complex
Will Rogers Memorial Center

Early life

Wyatt Cephus Hedrick was born December 17, 1888 in Chatham, Virginia to Washington Henry and Emma Cephas (Williams) Hedrick. He matriculated at Roanoke College, gaining his bachelor's degree in 1909. He earned a degree in engineering the next year from Washington and Lee University.[1]

1925 — Administration Building, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
1925 — Eudora Welty House, Jackson, Mississippi
1930 — Sterick Building, Memphis, Tennessee
1936 — Will Rogers Memorial Center, Fort Worth, Texas
1931 — Texas and Pacific Terminal and Warehouse, Fort Worth, Texas

Career

In 1910, Hedrick started a career in engineering, working briefly for Lane Brothers in his home state. Later that year he accepted a position at the Dallas office of Stone and Webster Engineering Corporation. He was a construction engineer for about three years.[1]

In 1914, Hedrick started his own engineering firm in Fort Worth under the name of Wyatt C. Hedrick Construction Company.[2]

Hedrick was accepted into the partnership of Sanguinet & Staats in 1921, an architecture firm based in Fort Worth which specialized in skyscrapers.[1]

After a year, Hedrick began his work as an architect in Fort Worth, Texas, and three years later opened his own office. He was responsible for many of the tallest buildings in Fort Worth, and several of his works are included on the National Register of Historic Places. Fort Worth's first Art Moderne skyscraper, the Worth Theatre (1927), was designed by Hedrick while partnered with Sanguinet & Staats.[3]

Hedrick worked mainly in a stripped-down classical style. With his extensive university and government work, at one time his firm was the third-largest in the United States.

Hedrick is also known for his eight Texas courthouses, all of which are still standing. They include: Austin County, Brazoria County, Coke County, Coleman County, Comanche, County, Kent County, Motley County, and Yoakum County.

Personal life

In 1918 he married Pauline Stripling. In 1925, he married Mildred Sterling, and in 1931 his father-in-law, Ross S. Sterling, became governor of Texas.[1]

Works

A list of works by Hedrick in chronological order, with shared attribution where applicable:

Name City Address Year NRHP-listed? Status Firm Notes
First National Bank Building[4] Fort Worth 711 Houston St. 1910 yes Sanguinet & Staats with Hedrick
Houston Street Viaduct[4] Dallas Houston St. roughly between Arlington St. and Lancaster Ave. 1911 yes Hedrick & Cochrane
Neil P. Anderson Building[4] Fort Worth 411 W. 7th St. 1921 yes Sanguinet & Staats; W. C. Hedrick Construction
Petroleum Building[4] Fort Worth 210 W. 6th. St. 1921 yes
West Texas Utilities Company Power Plant[4] Abilene, Texas 100 Block of N. Second St. 1922 yes
Sam Houston Hotel[4] Houston 1117 Prairie St. 1924 yes Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick & Gottlie
St. Mary of the Assumption Church[4] Fort Worth 501 W. Magnolia Ave. 1924 yes Sanguinet, Staats & Hedrick
Eudora Welty House[4] Jackson, Mississippi 1119 Pinehurst St. 1925 yes
Administration Building[5] Lubbock, Texas Texas Tech University 1925 Sanguinet, Staats and Hedrick William Ward Watkin, associate architect
Sanger Brothers Building[4] Fort Worth 410–412 Houston St. 1925 yes
Medical Arts Building Fort Worth 1926 Razed
Medical Arts Building[6] Houston 1926 Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick and Gottlieb
The Oliver Rea Eakle Building (Name changed to The Barfield in ~1947) Amarillo 600 S. Polk St. 1926 yes Undergoing restoration as of Oct. 2019 Sanguinet, Staats, Hedrick and Gottlieb
Fort Worth Elks Lodge 124[4] Fort Worth 512 W. 4th St. 1927 yes
Snider Hall[4] Dallas 3305 Dyer St. 1927 yes
Texas Technological College Dairy Barn[4] Lubbock Texas Tech University 1927 yes Sanguinet, Staats & Hedrick
Virginia Hall (Dallas, Texas), SMU campus[4] Dallas 3325 Dyer St. 1927 yes
Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Depot[4] Lubbock, Texas 1801 Ave. G 1927 yes
Islamic Da’wah Center of Houston Houston, Texas 202 Main St. 1928 yes Hedrick & Gottlieb, Inc. Formerly Houston National Bank[4]
Chemistry Building, Texas Tech University[5] Lubbock Texas Tech University 1928 Wyatt C. Hedrick and Company William Ward Watkin, associate architect
Electric Building[4] Fort Worth 410 W. 7th St. 1929 yes
Petroleum Building[6] and Yucca Theatre Midland, Texas 1929 aka Hogan Building
First Presbyterian Church (Corpus Christi, Texas)[7] Corpus Christi, Texas 430 S. Carancahua St. 1929
Baker Hotel[4] Mineral Wells, TX 200 E. Hubbard St. 1929 yes
Sterick Building[4] Memphis, Tennessee 8 N. 3rd St. 1930 yes
Commerce Building Fort Worth 1930
Texas and Pacific Terminal and Warehouse[4] Fort Worth Lancaster and Throckmorton Sts. 1931 yes NRHP-listed as Texas and Pacific Terminal Complex, Art Deco skyscraper
Psychopathic Hospital Bolivar, Tennessee 1932 Polk Building Within NRHP-listed Western State Hospital Historic District[8]
United States Post Office[4] Fort Worth Lancaster and Jennings Ave. 1933 yes
Will Rogers Memorial Center Fort Worth 1936 With Elmer G. Withers
Fort Worth City Hall 1938 yes Public Safety and Courts Building With Elmer G. Withers
First National Bank[9] Midland, Texas 1938 Hedrick and Company
Amarillo US Post Office and Courthouse[4] Amarillo, Texas 205 E. Fifth St. 1939 yes
Comanche County Courthouse (Comanche, Texas)[10] Comanche, Texas 1939 Wyatt C. Hedrick WPA project
B H Carroll Memorial Building Fort Worth 1948
Shamrock Hotel Houston 1949 Razed
Corrigan Tower Dallas 1952
Remodel of Coleman County Courthouse[11] Coleman, Texas 1952 Wyatt Hedrick
Cotton Belt Building[4] Tyler, Texas 1517 W. Front St. 1955 yes H. J. McKenzie and Wyatt C. Hedrick
Coke County Courthouse[12] Robert Lee, Texas 1956 Wyatt C. Hedrick, with Harry Weaver
Annex to Live Oak County Courthouse[13] George West, Texas 1956 Wyatt Hedrick
Austin County Courthouse[14] Bellville, Texas 1960 Wyatt C. Hedrick
Fidelity Union Life Insurance Building[4] Dallas 1511 Bryan and 1507 Pacific Ave. 1965 yes
yes
yes
Addition to Brazoria County Courthouse[15] Angleton, Texas 1976 yes Wyatt C. Hedrick

See also

Media related to Wyatt Hedrick at Wikimedia Commons

References
  1. Long, Christopher (March 7, 2017). "HEDRICK, WYATT CEPHAS". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
  2. Liles (2008), p. 8.
  3. Cohen, Judith Singer (1988). Cowtown Moderne: Art Deco Architecture of Fort Worth, Texas (1st ed.). College Station: Texas A & M University Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 0-89096-313-4. OCLC 18556286.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  5. Henry (1993), p. 156.
  6. Henry (1993), p. 137.
  7. Liles, Deborah (May 2008). "WYATT CEPHAS HEDRICK: BUILDER OF CITIES" (PDF).
  8. James B. Jones and Claudette Stager (April 1987). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Western State Hospital Historic District / Western State Hospital for the Insane at Bolivar / Western State Psychiatric Hospital / Western Mental Health Institute". National Park Service. Retrieved April 24, 2017.38 photos from 1987.
  9. Henry (1993), p. 230.
  10. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 77.
  11. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 72.
  12. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 71.
  13. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 179.
  14. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 38.
  15. Kelsey and Dyal (2007), p. 50.

Bibliography
  • Henry, Jay C. (1993). Architecture in Texas: 1895–1945. Austin: University of Texas Press.
  • Kelsey, Mavis P., Sr; Dyal, Donald H. (2007). The Courthouses of Texas (Second ed.). College Station: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-58544-549-3.
  • Liles, Deborah M. (2008). "Wyatt Cephas Hedrick: Builder of Cities" (PDF). University of North Texas. Master's thesis.
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