Pioneer Information
Born in Darlington, South Carolina, Hart graduated from Furman University with a degree in philosophy. In 1903 he relocated to New York City to join the architectural firm Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson, while also pursuing an advanced degree in architecture from Columbia University. Following his graduation in 1905, Hart found employment with the New York firm of H. Van Buren Magonigle, where he worked for one year. In 1910, after spending a year studying Gothic architecture at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, Hart accepted a commission to supervise the building of the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. Following the building’s completion, Hart settled in Nashville, where he quickly partnered with Eugene Freeland and Martin Roberts to establish the architectural and engineering firm Hart, Freeland and Roberts. Hart’s firm received many commissions throughout Tennessee, including the residence of William Ridley Willis, founder of the National Life and Accidental Insurance Company, which now serves as Tennessee’s Executive Residence (1931), and the full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Nashville’s Centennial Park. Other commissions included Dudley Field at Vanderbilt University (1922) reportedly the first stadium in the South built especially for football; Berry Field, Tennessee’s first international airport (1937); the Interstate Life and Accident Company Building, now the McCallie Avenue Building (1950s); and the Greenhill Shopping Center (1955). Hart died of complications from a heart condition at the age of 82. He is buried in Darlington, South Carolina.
