A light shines through it
Walk into any church with stained glass in Los Angeles and chances are it is the work of the six-generation family legacy of Judson Studios. Located in a quiet corner of Highland Park known as Garvanza, Judson Studios has been meticulously crafting sacred and secular stained glass for more than a century. Examples of their work range from the rotunda skylight at the Natural History Museum to windows in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock and Ennis houses, with countless places of worship in between.
Founder William Lees Judson never intended to be a purveyor of stained glass. He was a respected painter and teacher, a childhood emigrant from England who ended up in the Arroyo Seco region in search of better health in 1893. He became part of the burgeoning Arts and Crafts movement, painting plein air landscapes that captured the deep greens of California live oaks on rolling hills in soft buttery hues.
Info
Address 200 S Avenue 66, Los Angeles, CA 90042, +1 323.255.0131, www.judsonstudios.com, info@judsonstudios.com | Getting there Free small on-site lot and unmetered street parking | Hours By appointment only. Admission: $10 per person, $8 for students & seniors. Tours offered to groups of 20 or more. Smaller groups sign up on a waitlist to partner with others to reach the quota.| Tip While you’re in the neighborhood, Stash on York (6000 York Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90042, +1 323.999.7474) is a must-visit. The curated vintage and bespoke clothing store is owned by the seamstress Kiki Stash, and is open by appointment only.
William Lees saw a need and desire for stained glass and convinced his three sons who practiced the craft to join him in LA and open a studio. They set up shop in Downtown Los Angeles and quickly established a reputation for quality work.
William Lees kept painting and took a professorship at USC’s Los Angeles College of Fine Arts. The campus was built across the street from Lees’s home in Garvanza. When the campus burned down nine years later, he escaped through a window and reportedly taught his classes under a pepper tree that day. In 1920, USC would consolidate the art campus with the West Adams campus and Judson Studios would move into the rebuilt Avenue 66 building, where it still operates today. Day to day operations are now in the hands of David Judson, William Lees’s great-great-grandson.
Tours go through the former classrooms and studios of USC’s fine arts school, now filled with gigantic backlit tables holding stained-glass projects in progress.
Nearby
Back
To the online map