Hull Millwork
Carter-Riverside High School in Fort Worth, opened in 1936. The school recently had its windows restored by Hull Millwork in collaboration with Byrne/Potere and Glenn Partners Architects.
Society has mythologized eccentricity as an essential trait of genius. We expect geniuses to be odd, so we interpret quirks through that lens.
Quite simply, extraordinary minds live differently.
Wyatt Hedrick
Wyatt C. Hedrick certainly would seem to qualify. Though a Cadillac man with two parked at his home, and one each at his offices in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Houston, Hedrick was said to prefer bumming rides from friends and colleagues, employees, and other company executives to get around Texas.
Hedrick’s commute to his Dallas office was unconventional, to say the least. According to a report years ago by the Star-Telegram, Hedrick would hitch a ride to the old Dallas–Fort Worth Turnpike — now simply Interstate 30 — slip past the tollbooth and thumb another ride off someone he knew on the other side.
That qualifies as different, but Hedrick was different in every sense as an architect and engineer.
Hedrick’s Fort Worth-based company was one of the largest in the country at the time of his death in 1964 at age 75. The firm had completed jobs all over the world and had more than 900 on the payroll.
Wyatt C. Hedrick Architect and Engineer had revenues of more than $1.3 billion between 1922 and 1963. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $13 billion today.
Hedrick's footprint in Fort Worth and across the Southwest is immense. Dozens of his buildings still rise across the city, their design as striking today as ever. His Art Deco and Zigzag Moderne works are counted among the best examples of their kind anywhere.
Hedrick's firm was responsible for many of the city's significant Art Deco buildings, including the Will Rogers complex, the T&P Terminal and Warehouse, and the Central Fire Station. Hedrick and his chief designer, Herman Koeppe, also designed Carter Riverside High School and the city’s — that is, Amon Carter’s — Greater Southwest International Airport.
His vanished landmarks include the Medical Arts Building and the Aviation Building, both demolished in the 1970s. According to Southwestern Architect magazine in 1928, the Medical Arts Building was voted by Texas architects as one of the 12 best buildings in Texas.
“They kind of worked hand in hand because Hedrick wasn't a trained architect,” says John Roberts, an architect and board member of Historic Fort Worth Inc., of Hedrick and Koeppe. “Hedrick was a trained engineer. So, Koeppe did a lot of these designs.”
Hedrick was born to a family of tobacco farmers in Virginia. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Roanoke College in 1909 and followed that with an engineering degree in 1910 from Washington and Lee University.
He moved to Dallas for work at an engineering firm, but in 1914 he formed Hedrick Construction. In 1921, he became a partner in the Fort Worth architectural firm, the famed Sanguinet & Staats.
“They named their firm Sanguine Stats and Hedrick,” says Roberts, who has documented many of Fort Worth's buildings through his website Architecture in Fort Worth. “St. Mary's of the Assumption Catholic Church and the Fort Worth Club are two of the few buildings in that transition period that had the credit of all three architects.”
Hedrick bought out his partners in 1922.
With a distinguished look and celebrated identity, Hedrick, according to a profile in the Star-Telegram, caught the eye of Madison Avenue. He was featured in Lord Calvert’s “Men of Distinction” campaign — a whiskey ad that cast him as the picture of midcentury success: poised in his office, a model of his Shamrock Hotel gleaming behind him, and a highball glass in hand.
The timing of the campaign couldn’t have been worse. Hedrick was then building a project at Baylor University, the world’s largest Baptist educational institution with J. Frank Norris ties that treated alcohol consumption with scorn and revulsion, as well as a moral failing. When the ad ran, the reaction was said to be swift and final. Baylor severed ties, and Hedrick was never invited to build there again.
Texas Tech University, TCU, and Texas Wesleyan University had no restrictions on such social enterprises. He designed several buildings on each campus.
The last building in Fort Worth with Hedrick’s fingertips was the Fritz G. Lanham Federal Building in downtown, Roberts says.
It was being constructed when he died in 1964 at age 75. The firm closed its doors shortly after.
Notable works by the firm of Wyatt Hedrick
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Amon Carter Riverside High School, 1936
The materials on the three-story "H" shaped school are yellow brick, red clay tile roof, and a projecting stone entry. The design is a Spanish Baroque. It was one of five high schools built in the city with funding from the Works Progress Administration. (Arlington Heights, I.M. Terrell, North Side, and Polytechnic were the others.) In 1954, Hedrick's office designed a sympathetic addition to the rear of the building. The landscaped front yard, which includes a park shelter, was designed by Hare & Hare Landscape Architects from St. Louis as a part of the WPA. — Architecture in Fort Worth
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection
Medical Arts Building, 1926
Construction of the Medical Arts Building cost in excess of $1 million in 1926 ($18 million in today’s dollars). It was another building with design by Sanguinet, Staats & Hedrick. The building, now demolished, sat on the site of the current Burnett Building, facing Burk Burnett Park. It contained 16 stories and 250 offices. The building was financed by Jesse Jones, Houston businessman and future Secretary of Commerce in the FDR administration. “The building will be one of the most unusual and unique structures of its kind in the United States,” Hedrick said, “in that it will be faced on four sides by brick and stone. As a general rule, only three sides of a corner building are constructed in this manner.” The second floor included a 400-seat auditorium.
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Central Fire Station, 1930
Herman Koeppe of Hedrick's office designed this facility which is actually two separate buildings. The larger building is the station itself, and the smaller building is a fire alarm signal station. These buildings are good examples of the Zigzag Moderne Style of the Art Deco era. One notable feature of the building is a 70-foot-high siren tower located to the rear of the station. The tower looks like a miniature version of the Will Rogers Pioneer Tower, designed by Koeppe a few years later. As with many Zigzag Moderne buildings, the fire station uses ornate brickwork to carry out the design. — Architecture in Fort Worth
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Lone Star Gas Co., 1929
The four-story building was opened in 1929 with capabilities for an expansion of three floors, which were added in 1957. Those were also designed by Hedrick. At that time, the blue flame neon sign of the Lone Star Gas logo was installed on top of the building. The building features Art Deco styling and has a beautiful lobby that has been restored. So, too, has the blue flame, restored and reinstalled by the city in 2023. The city of Fort Worth Water Department currently occupies the building. — Architecture in Fort Worth
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WD Smith Commercial Photo Collection
Downtown Post Office, 1933
The Texas limestone structure is a mix of beaux arts and classical styling. The classical columns capitals on the building feature Texas longhorn and Hereford cattle, and the cornice is ornamented with lion heads. The most dramatic space within the post office is the lobby, which runs the entire length of the building. Although it was constructed as a part of the Texas and Pacific Railway Complex, Hedrick chose to turn away from the Art Deco styling. The Post Office opened under the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. — Architecture in Fort Worth
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Greater Southwest Regional Airport, 1953
The Greater Southwest Regional Airport, the Fort Worth International Airport, or Amon Carter Field — pick a name — was open to traffic in 1953. It was the result of Fort Worth’s and Dallas’ failures to come to an agreement to build a metropolitan airport to serve the region. The airport was bulldozed when the cities finally agreed to build Dallas Fort Worth International Airport near the same site. The inside of Greater Southwest Regional Airport was quite decadent.