The son of John and Elizabeth Dunlap (Blithe) Hazlehurst, Edward P. Hazlehurst was born near Brandenburg, Meade Co., KY, where his mother's family maintained a plantation. After graduating from the Faires' Classical Institute in Philadelphia, young Hazlehurst entered the University of Pennsylvania, Towne Scientific School, in the Class of 1876 but left the college at the end of his sophomore year, lured away by work in the offices of such eminent Philadelphia architects as T. P. Chandler (1874-1876?) and Frank Furness (1876-1881). By 1881 he and Samuel Huckel, Jr. had established Hazlehurst & Huckel. A successful residential design firm, Hazlehurst & Huckel endured until 1900, when Huckel received the commission to remodel Grand Central Station in New York City; and the partnership dissolved. Although Huckel returned to Philadelphia in 1901/02, the partners did not reunite; and Hazlehurst pursued an independent career until his death in Media, PA, in 1915. Divested of Huckel, Hazlehurst's later career included considerable academic work, among the commissions four buildings at Pennsylvania State College from 1902 to 1915.

Hazlehurst joined the Philadelphia Chapter of the AIA in 1875 as a junior member, becoming a full member in 1879. He joined the national AIA in 1881 and in the 1883/84 academic year served as judge of the annual architectural drawing competition held at Spring Garden Institute.

Written by Sandra L. Tatman.