Interest in construction and lumber runs deep in the Hurst families of Blanding. In the late 1930’s Joe and Stan Hurst’s grandfather, Phil Hurst and their Uncle George Hurst purchased Dave Black's Sawmill. They operated this mill on Johnson Creek for years then moved it to a site 4 miles north of Blanding and ran it until 1950 when it burned down. This provided lumber for the first homes built in San Juan County. (More info in Fall 1988 issue of Blue Mountain Shadows)
Phil’s son, Scott, began
his construction journey in 1953 in the Marine Corps where he learned to build
bridges. He next attended a building trades school in California, then he and Erma
Lee moved back to Blanding. He first worked for Rex Harvey’s Building and
Supply, building cabinets. Shortly afterwards Scott took out a $300 loan and started his
own business.
Photo from SJC Historical Society
As the business expanded, Scott hired Ron MacDonald, Arvid Black and his former employer, Rex Harvey! His daughter Jane remembered, one cold winter when they had poured concrete. “They spent the night on the job site, keeping fires lit to prevent the concrete from freezing. Rex's wife got up in the night to check on them and both men had an open half gallon of ice cream in one hand, with their trowels in the other hand eating the ice cream.”
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| The Elmer Hurst home built by Scott Hurst is still one of the most attractive ones in Blanding and was built on a "firm foundation." |
“Our home was probably one of best built homes in Blanding at that time,” said Elmer. “Scott had a good crew: John Hurst was the spackler and his craftmanship was far superior to the wallboard used now days. Linney Goldberg did all the interior hardwood carpentry.” A new man who came to work for Scott from another company once told Scott, "If you tell me to go pour a set of stairs, you'll tell me every step of how to do it and if I don't do it good enough, you'll take it out and re-do it.” His other boss never did that!
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| A car port and an extension to the front room were built for Parley & Agnus Hurst by Scott Hurst and they are still used by the Cosby family today. Building homes in Blanding was Scott's major focus for several decades. One early home built by his company was the Bob and Kay home at where the Kyles' family lives now (157 S 200 East ). It was built in the early 70's. When they were digging out the basement, they hit bedrock, so the house sits a bit higher than they had intended," Heather Raisor added  Heather also remembered, "Mom told Scott she didn’t want a wall between the living room and the kitchen. He was surprised, but when it was done he thought it was a good idea. Today they build houses like that all the time and call it a “Great Room.” The Jones' "great room" was definitely built to last for multiple generations.  |
The unique and attractive Dee and Beppy Gibbons home built by Tri-Hurst in the 60's was unfortunately demolished in 2012 when the college decided not to use the building anymore. Ironically, it was Tri-Hurst who was also hired to do the demolition of this beautiful landmark.
Day 1 of the official demolition of the Dee Gibbons home July 10, 2012. The Gibbons home was used for over 20 years as an integral part of the San Juan Campus. Prior to July 10 the inside doors, windows & fixtures had been removed, but once the roof was removed the die was cast, and the beautiful home was soon destroyed.
By Day 3 -- All that was left to remove was the basement of the home and the beautiful west arches. It was a sad ending to one of the most beautiful homes in Blanding and a reminder of the family who donated the building to the college in its early beginnings.
Scott’s daughter, Jane remembers also watching Scott build
caskets for people who couldn't afford to purchase one. “He refused to be paid
for them. He would make beautiful caskets which he padded and lined with satin,
even the hardware was elegant.” Many of those experiences were very tender ones
both for the builder and the recipients.
in 1973 Scott Hurst next hired Pete Black as his bookkeeper and by the 1980's Hurst Builders was off and running. Projects included: new wings added to Blanding Nursing Home 1983, Shiprock LDS Church 1984 and the Albert R. Lyman School Gym 1986.
Another milestone was when Scott and Erma were called to serve a mission to Armenia July 1991. The LDS church needed service missionaries to help rebuild the country after devastating earthquakes and the negative impact of the Soviet Union. They specifically needed those with construction experience. Stan recalled his father reading about it in the Church News and saying, “Now, wouldn’t that be a fun experience!” Not long afterwards, Stake President Francis Lyman called them to serve in Armenia and the “fun experience” began. Six couples served with them.
Soon
after arriving they wrote home, saying they had entered the “old Persian
Empire, in full view of Noah’s traditional landing and where the 10 tribes got
lost!” Scott noted that Armenia had been in bondage to the USSR for 70
years. The devastation of earthquakes
was in all parts of Armenia.”
Feb. 22, 1992 Scott wrote: “The government has allowed 10 [cement]
factories to reopen…ours being one of them and it receives power for 6 hrs. a
day. Socialized government is still very much in control of when and how long
plants can be run.” Cement buildings were needed because they
were sturdier. The Huntsman's had run a concrete plant there for 3 years.
The new missionaries served for 1 1/2 years. They were not allowed to proselyte;
however, many local people befriended them. Both Scott and Erma were dedicated
letter writers and those letters were published in a mission book and are very
interesting. Scott once wrote: “Most people have
their mail delivered by the postal service as missionaries, but the
Armenian missionaries had their mail delivered by General Authorities," Scott once wrote. (They came
often to evaluate the building progress being made.)
Scott taught many Armenians construction skills and kept good notes comparing tools, cement and progress made, “There has a been a precast concrete plant here for over 30 years which includes several buildings.” His interest in concrete work piqued the interest of his grandsons one of whom did research focused on cement for the State History Fair. Several of his grandsons became engineers and were capable builders as well.
The photo below was the beginning of what became the Wilcox home at 112 S. 300 W. It was added on to multiple times by Alma Palmer and others before we purchased it from Pete Black in 1974.
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| Front of our home after Jan. fire |
The solid framework of the home was in tact after the fire and was likely built from some of the very timber shown in the first photos of this article. In our small-minded thinking, we just planned to rebuild the house. But after Scott Hurst surveyed the damage, he came up with many amazing and well thought out suggestions for improving both its functionality and aesthetics.
A major transformation began after the Jan.1990 fire
The kitchen and the family room were joined into one large area, which required installing a large support beam. They poured and leveled cement in the kitchen area, so, water wouldn’t run in 3 directions!) Tri-Hursts added cement and pillars in the front, for an aesthetically pleasing entrance and a large pantry & more work space in the kitchen. Scott designed an awesome walk-in closet for the master bedroom, and dozens of other changes that made it perfect for our large family. “This kind of insight and creativity guided Tri-Hurst for decades."
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| Pillars, cement work, a covered porch and two large windows were all features Scott Hurst initiated and built for our "new" home. |
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