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Biography/History:
Francis Blair Hull
Francis (Frank) Blair Hull was born in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, on August 17, 1846. He was the son of John Hull (1813-1860) of Belfast, Ireland, and Anna M. (Blair) Hull (1811-1880) of Monticello, Lawrence County, Mississippi. Francis Blair Hull married Clara Swain (b. 1848) on November 14, 1860. The Hulls had six children: Flora Lee (b. ca. 1871), Sarah May (b. 1874), Francis (Frank) Blair, Jr. (b. ca. 1875), Anna Isabella (1878-1890), Minnie S. (1880-1917), and Emmett J. Following the death of Clara Swain Hull on March 1, 1891, Francis Blair Hull married Isabel S. Hull of Tennessee.
After serving in an artillery unit during the Civil War, Francis Blair Hull opened a lumberyard in Jackson. He began working as a building contractor in 1875, forming a partnership with his brother, William S. Hull (b. 1848), the next year. The resulting firm was known as F. B. and W. S. Hull. The partnership was dissolved when William S. Hull became an architect in 1904. Francis Blair Hull then formed a partnership with his son, Francis Blair Hull, Jr., renaming the company F. B. Hull Construction Company. Francis Blair Hull, Sr., died on November 23, 1922.
Emmett Johnston Hull
Emmett Johnston Hull was born in Jackson on September 9, 1882. After attending Mississippi State University, Hull graduated from Cornell University with a degree in architecture. He then attended the school of design at the Hornbostel Atelier in New York City. Hull also worked as a draftsman for Alfred Hopkins in New York City in 1906. He was later a draftsman for William S. Hull, and he also worked for the F. B. Hull Construction Company in Jackson between 1907 and 1911. Hull was a self-employed architect in Jackson by November of 1912.
On July 23, 1917, Emmett J. Hull married Marie Atkinson, who was born in Summit, Pike County, Mississippi, on September 28, 1890. She had graduated from Belhaven College in Jackson with a degree in music in 1909. Marie Atkinson Hull studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later pursued additional studies at the Art Students League in New York and in France and Spain. She painted in acrylic, oil, and watercolor during her artistic career.
Emmett J. Hull worked as an architect in Clearwater and St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1925 and 1926. He was associated with the Jackson architectural firm, Hull and Malvaney, from 1928 to 1932. Hull formed a partnership with Eugene Dixon Drummond in 1933, establishing the architectural firm, Hull and Drummond, which was dissolved in 1942. He was an architectural engineer for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, between 1942 and 1943. Hull continued working as an architect from September of 1943 until his retirement. He occasionally worked with other Jackson architectural firms, including E. L. Malvaney and Associates. Hull was president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Institute of Architects and the Mississippi State Board of Architecture.
Among the Jackson-area buildings that Hull designed are the United States courthouse and post office, the municipal airport, Livingston Park recreational buildings, a Tougaloo College academic building, and several factories and mills. He also designed a number of school buildings in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area.
The Hulls were members of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Emmett J. Hull died in Jackson on October 20, 1957. Marie Atkinson Hull died in Jackson on November 21, 1980.
Scope and Content:
This collection contains photographs, photograph albums, correspondence, business papers and records, religious papers, a diary, poetry and prose, and printed materials of Emmett J. Hull and other Hull family members.
The collection mainly consists of photographs and negatives. Most of these images are black-and-white in format, but there are a few cyanotypes and color photographs. Many of the photographs are of buildings designed by Emmett J. Hull, the majority of which are in Jackson. With the exception of a few identified portraits, most of the other photographs are unidentified. These include numerous portraits and scenes of a flood and sailboats.
Most of the images in the photograph albums are of unidentified subjects. However, one album concerns the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria, Louisiana, which was built by the F. B. Hull Construction Company, and one album contains a photograph identified as "Conclave of District VII," which was held in Jackson in November of 1911.
The correspondence of Emmett J. Hull includes both business and personal letters. A folder, labeled "M 1949," contains business correspondence of Emmett J. Hull. Another folder contains letters recommending Hull as an architect. One folder includes correspondence of Hull with Christian Scientists Kern B. Fontaine, Sr., of Gray’s Bay, Minnesota, and Dorothea Thomas of Omaha, Nebraska.
The correspondence of Hull family members includes letters of Sarah May (Hull) Bentley, Clara Swain Hull, Emmett J. Hull, Flora Lee Hull, Francis Blair Hull, Sr., Francis Blair Hull, Jr., Isabelle Hull, William S. Hull, Lizzie Thomas, and War Department officials who were stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas. Most of these letters concern family matters, and they often relate personal information such as marriage and death dates.
The business papers and records of Emmett J. Hull include accounting ledgers, architectural drawings, business publications, certificates, and résumés. Most of the architectural drawings are undated, and there are two that are hand-colored. Two July 1943 architectural drawings are of a community clinic in Washington, D.C., and two November 1953 architectural drawings are of a proposed design for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, building in Jackson. Three undated architectural drawings are of the Jackson Central Farmers’ Market.
There are two accounting ledgers, one of which records expenses of the Emmett J. Hull architectural firm and its employees. The other ledger is indexed and paginated, and it records business expenses from 1909 to 1918. Both ledgers list specific clients or projects.
There are three certificates that were presented to Hull by the American Institute of Architects and the Jackson Photographic Society. There are also résumés of Hull and several other members of his architectural firm, including W. E. Johnson and E. L. Malvaney.
Among the business publications are a July 1942 report entitled Architectural Records Building Types Study; a July 1945 issue of Hospitals with a section on health centers; and a work entitled Profile of Growth: 1960 Progress Report on Jackson, Miss., which describes some of Hull’s architectural projects in Jackson.
The religious papers include printed material and two scrapbooks of newsclippings relating to Christian Science. Among the printed materials are copies of the Christian Science Sentinel, excerpts from a divinity course, and published lectures on Christian Science.
An undated diary of Minnie S. Hull chronicles her childhood trip to Nicaragua.
The poetry and prose is all typewritten, either by members of the Hull family or by others. Much of the material is anonymous, but Sarah May Hull Bentley and Francis Blair Hull signed at least three of the pieces.
Miscellaneous printed material includes advertisements, newsclippings, and a program from the May 1944 graduating class of Principia College of Liberal Arts in Elsah, Illinois. Of interest is Section E of a July 23, 1961, issue of the Clarion-Ledger, which is a reprint of a July 26, 1861, issue of the Eastern Clarion.
Series Identification:
Box 1, folder 1: Stuart C. Irby home (interior); three unidentified subjects, n.d. (oversize)
Box 4, folders 1-41: (see Appendix 1 for folder contents)
Box 2, folder 1: "Emmett J. Hull, architect," n.d. (1 oversize item)
Box 4, folder 42: unidentified subjects [on vacation ?], n.d. (1 item)
Box 4, folder 43: "Conclave of District VII," Jackson, Mississippi, November 1911 (1 item)
Box 4, folder 44: unidentified subjects, n.d. (3 items)
Box 4, folder 45: unidentified subjects, n.d. (2 items)
Box 4, folder 46: Bentley Hotel, Alexandria, Louisiana, n.d. (1 item)
Box 4: folder 53: letters of recommendation, 1913-1931; n.d.
Box 4, folder 55: correspondence (religious), 1941-1967; n.d.
Box 4, folder 56: "M 1949," 1949-1957, n.d.
Box 4, folder 57: correspondence (Hull family), 1869-1930.
Box 4, folder 58: correspondence (Hull family), 1938-1947.
Box 4, folder 59: correspondence (Hull family), 1949-1956; n.d.
Box 1, folder 2: architectural drawings, n.d.
Box 3: accounting ledgers, 1909-1918; 1951-1957. (2 volumes)
Box 4, folder 50: certificates, 1925; 1950-1957.
Box 4, folder 51: publications, 1942-1945; 1960.
Box 4, folder 52: résumés and contract, n.d.
Box 2, folder 2: scrapbook, 1910-1911; n.d.
Box 3: scrapbook, n.d.
Box 4, folder 54: printed material, 1903; 1924-1928; 1943-1948; n.d.
Box 4, folder 49.
Box 4, folders 47-48.
Box 1, folder 3: newspaper, 1961. (oversize)
Box 4, folder 60: advertisements, newsclippings, and program. 1944-1950; n.d.