Out of the woodwork: Unlocking the secrets of historic buildings.

Byline: Amber Nimocks

FORT WORTH, Texas _ With its floor stripped bare, dust coating its 20-foot windows and scaffolding climbing 30 feet to the ceiling, the second-floor courtroom of the Parker County (Texas) Courthouse seems like a place with nothing to hide.

But to Brent Hull, this is a space with stories to tell, and he can look beyond the chaos of restoration to see the old place's secrets.

Hull makes his living re-creating the past, conjuring up new versions of lost architectural details using plain materials _ wood, putty and well-sharpened tools. When he looks at an old home or a decaying courthouse, he sees records of an architect's vision realized and sometimes betrayed. Decades of history come to life as he studies door frames, windows and stair rails. Hull has a knack for knowing what a designer envisioned 50 or 100 years ago, and a talent for putting things right.

This talent has helped Hull turn what began 10 years ago as a handyman business run out of his brother's Fort Worth garage into Hull Historical Millwork, one of the most respected restoration companies in Texas. Along the way, he has amassed a profound knowledge of late-19th- and mid-20th-century architectural style _ enough to fill a book. His recently published "Historic Millwork" (John Wiley ...