The Judson Studios Tour – Highland Park, CA

Legendary Stained Glass Artisans

The Judson Studios Tour – Highland Park, CA

2026

Cultural Heritage Board Monument No. 62. Despite frequently driving by this historic marker sign on numerous occasions, our interest was not sufficiently piqued until we happened to visit Glendale’s Forest Lawn Museum’s 2021 exhibition, Judson Studios: Stained Glass from Gothic to Street Style. 

In hindsight, we should have been more inquisitive as, unbeknownst to us, we have frequented many places featuring Judson stained glass installations, including the rotunda at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum and an amazing light fixture at Los Angeles Central Library.

As long-time readers of this website know, we have never met a stained-glass cathedral window we didn’t like! We have seen thousands. Literally.

Nestled alongside the Arroyo Seco Parkway in Highland Park, Tracy and I finally visited the fabled Judson Studios for a two-hour guided tour. And I mean “finally.” There is only one public tour per month and booking is limited to four tickets per purchase. It took us three years to score tickets!  Founded in 1897 by William Lees Judson and his three sons as the Colonial Art Glass Company, this historic and world-renowned stained-glass studio is still a family run business headed by fifth-generation great, great, grandson David Judson, with the sixth-generation in training.

William Lees Judson founded (and was the first dean of) the University of Southern California School of Fine Arts at this location in 1900. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1910 and rebuilt in the Arts and Crafts style in 1911. When William Lees Judson retired and the School of Fine Arts moved to its current campus in 1920, his son, Walter Horace Judson, moved the studio from downtown Los Angeles to this location and renamed it Judson Studios. In 1999, the building itself was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. (photo taken at Forest Lawn Exhibition)

Our tour took us through rooms full of various types of glass and projects in differing stages of completion. First stop was the design room complete with a giant printer. Full-size “cartoons” are made of the stained-glass project and printed on this printer before the glass is even cut. As someone who nearly flunked kindergarten because I couldn’t cut out a paper pumpkin correctly, I was more than impressed.

On the wall was a pattern for a recent ongoing project for a men’s cloistered monastery in Wyoming, which is building its own Gothic-style chapel.  Judson is creating the windows which will be installed by the monks.  Once completed, this will be the largest project in Judson Studios’ storied history.

In the cutting room we learned about the various types of glass used and how the glass is cut with hand-held cutters. Hanging from the windows in this room are examples of the more than 500 different colors of glass.

In the glazing room, we learned how the individual pieces of colored glass are soldered together with lead.

On this table they were restoring a church window from Honolulu, Hawai’i.

Downstairs they were applying putty to protect against moisture and cleaning the window.

We then jumped in our car and drove a short distance to Judson’s second location in South Pasadena, which was opened in 2016 to create the largest fused stained-glass window in the world for the Church of Resurrection in Kansas. Called The Resurrection Window, it stands 100 feet tall and is 35 feet wide.

There is a fascinating backstory on the creation of The Resurrection Window in the documentary “Holy Frit” about how an artist for Judson Studios, Tim Carey, designed the winning the project, but had no idea how to accomplish his vision. Fortunately, master artist in fused glass, Narcissus Quagliata, stepped in to help after meeting Tim at a workshop in Denver, and Bullseye Glass from Portland had exactly the glass they needed for this complicated endeavor.

                            The South Pasadena studio is also where the painting of the stained glass happens. Here Judson is working on a new project featuring a rabbit …

… as well as a new piece for the Church of Resurrection.

The two-hour tour was interesting, informative and chock full of history. After more than 125 years, Judson has famous installations and restorations strewn across the globe, but we’ll mostly focus below on some of the installations we have been fortunate to see over the years

The 24-foot-wide Rotunda Skylight at Los Angeles Natural History Museum was designed by Walter Horace Judson and installed in 1913. Judson also created the amber glass orb in the sculpture, The Three Graces by Julia Bracken Wendt. 

In 1921, Judson Studios worked with Frank Lloyd Wright creating 130 windows and skylights for Hollyhock House in Los Angeles (now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) and Ennis House, which is still a privately owned home.

The Gothic Revival-style All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, houses 58 windows by Judson Studios installed in the mid-1920s. The large center windows in the north and south transepts were made by Tiffany Studios in New York and transported to Pasadena by train. Judson Studios then created an additional 58 windows, some using Tiffany glass and in the “Tiffany-style.”

The four Judson windows on the west wall depict St. Paul, St. Felicitus, St. Perpetua and St. Peter.

These are cartoons made for two of the windows at All Saints together with the finished windows at the church. [Photo taken at the Forest Lawn Museum exhibit.] Side by side with the finished product at All Saints.

The large window above the narthex is Christ Blessing the Children which was created by Judson artist Frederick Wilson, who “had worked at the Tiffany Studios in New York before moving to California.” This window was designed in the Tiffany style to match the Tiffany windows in the north and south transepts. Wilson used his son as the model for Christ and his wife for the image of Mary.

At the Forest Lawn exhibition, we photographed Blue Angel which was created by another former Tiffany Studios’ artist, A.E. Brain. While working for Judson, he created this angel in opalescent glass which was popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [Photo taken at the Forest Lawn Museum exhibition.]

Judson has created several projects in the Arts and Crafts style, including the stunning doors at the Lodge at Torrey Pines in San Diego, CA, modeled after the doors at Pasadena’s historic Gamble House. [This photo of a trial piece for the doors was taken at the Forest Lawn exhibition.]

The incredible Zodiac Chandelier at the Los Angeles Central Library was designed by architects Goodhue Associates. It is cast in bronze and weighs in at a mere one ton. The gorgeous globe at the center was created by Judson Studios.
In the 1970s and 80s, Judson Studios created two windows for the historic Mountain View Mortuary and Cemetery in Altadena, California. Both projects were designed by artist Jae Carmichael, who was a descendant of the Giddings family, which founded the cemetery in 1882. In the mid-70s, she designed the Oak Tree in the Sunrise Chapel window which was inspired by an oak tree still standing on the grounds …

… and in the mid-80s Jae designed the ceiling and window in the New Radiance Corridor.

Judson Studios has recently begun restoration and repair of other stained glass in the Mausoleum which, in addition to natural wear and tear over the last century, suffered smoke damage from the horrific Eaton Fire in January 2025. A fundraiser has been established  to raise the funds necessary to fully restore and stabilize these historic windows created by Los Angeles Art Glass Co.

One of the largest collections of stained glass in the United States is at Forest Lawn Memorial in Glendale, California.

Its collection contains more than 100 stained-glass windows from all over the world and includes many installations created by Judson Studios including the below two in the Hall of the Crucifixion-Resurrection which houses one of the “largest religious painting[s] in the Western Hemisphere,” The Crucifixion by Polish artist Jan Styka.

Our tour at Judson Studios made us appreciate even more all the stained glass we’ve seen on our travels, including the numerous pieces designed and created by Judson Studios themselves.

When we view these creations in the future, we will always fondly remember the rooms where it happened.

Judson Studios
200 South Avenue 66
Los Angeles, CA 90042