The House That Judson Built
Twenty-five years ago, David Judson (’92) inherited the family business. It just happened to be America’s oldest family-run stained-glass studio. With more than a century of tradition behind him, how would he shape what came next?
JUST OFF SOUTH AVENUE 66 IN LOS ANGELES’ Garvanza neighborhood, a long dirt driveway winds through California pepper trees. More than a century ago, painter William Lees Judson and his art students gathered for lessons here beneath the same kind of trees. Today, dust curls behind tires as visitors drive toward Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 62, once home to Southern California’s first art school.
In the late 1800s, artists and craftspeople gravitated to the Arroyo Seco, or dry stream, the corridor stretching from the San Gabriel Mountains through Pasadena and Northeast Los Angeles. Judson was one of them. Originally from England, the painter helped establish the art school on this site that eventually became USC’s College of Fine Arts and served as its first dean.
Through the trees, the building begins to emerge: two stories of wood shingles rising above a base of Arroyo stone gathered from the nearby wash. Built in 1911, the architecture is a glimpse into the Arts and Crafts era, which emphasized natural materials and craftsmanship.
When USC moved its fine arts program to its main campus in 1920, the Judson family’s stained-glass business moved into the building. Founded by Judson and his three sons in 1897, Judson Studios has remained here ever since.
Walk through the studio doors and nearly 130 years of family history come into view. Four photographs hang together on a wall: William Lees Judson first, followed by three generations of Judsons who carried the studio forward. Beside them, a space awaits the fifth: Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół» alumnus and current Judson Studios president David Judson (’92).
DAVID JUDSON HAS never known a time without Judson Studios. By the time he was born, the nation’s oldest family-run stained-glass studio already had decades of history. Charlie Chaplin’s name appears in its old records as a client, and Judson windows could be found in famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock and Ennis houses and other landmarks across Los Angeles and beyond.
Working alongside his father, Walter Judson, David spent his summers as a boy packing envelopes, learning how to cut glass and listening to stories about his grandfathers. “My grandfather used to talk a lot about his grandfather, who started the business, and how he would practice his Shakespeare with him,” David says. “My grandfather [Horace] was a lawyer before the company and was super meticulous about keeping records.”
As David reached high school, he began thinking about life outside of the studio and what path he wanted to take. The prospect of moving away to college offered an opportunity to explore possibilities beyond the family business.
For David, Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół» offered that chance. It was just far enough from home to offer a new experience, while keeping family and friends close. He studied Spanish in the College of Letters and Arts and minored in political science. He put his Spanish to practice and moved to Madrid, an experience that eventually led him to a master’s degree in international relations from the USC.
“Each generation was very different … they feel so distant. But I realize how much we have in common when I look back.”
The path David explored beyond Judson Studios eventually led him back. In 1996, he returned to Los Angeles and began working alongside his father again. He had seven years to learn from him—and a lifetime of hands-on experience—before everything changed.
In 2003, Walter died suddenly of a heart attack at 61. David’s siblings weren’t working at the studio, and his mother wasn’t in a position to take over. The family business that had always been part of his life was suddenly his to carry forward.
“I was just the last man standing,” David says.
AS DAVID’S relationship with the family business came full circle, he found himself asking a different question for the first time: What could he do with it?
Part of the answer came from looking in the past. As David researched the four generations that came before him, he began to see them less as distant figures in the family history and more as people who had wrestled with many of the same questions he faced.
“Each generation was very different in their ways and the ways they corresponded, the records they kept, the projects they did, and, you know, they feel so distant,” he says. “But I realize how much we have in common when I look back.”
The research became almost therapeutic. David discovered that each generation had found its own way to effect change in the studio. Preserving the family legacy, he realized, didn’t have to mean keeping everything the same.
That exploration eventually became the 2020 book, “Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass,” which traces all five generations of the family business. In their stories, David recognized familiar struggles: perseverance, maintaining the integrity of the work and finding ways to innovate without losing what made the business successful.
“It was a way for me to connect with my forefathers, because I was trying to do things in a way that I felt was the first time being done for our company,” David says. “This was a way to recognize the past and recognize them so I could move on and do what I want moving forward.”
IN 2014, Judson Studios designed a window it didn’t yet know how to make. The company was beginning to explore fused glass, a process that uses kiln heat to melt layers of glass together rather than joining individual pieces with lead. Within two years, David opened Judson Studios’ second location down the street in South Pasadena, complete with kilns and an art gallery. He was moving the family business forward in his own way.
“This was a huge redirect for us and the studio,” David says. “I kept thinking, what would my forefathers think of this?”
That first project was the Resurrection Window for the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Measuring at 3,404 square feet, about three-quarters the size of a basketball court, it is now recognized as the world’s largest single fused glass window.
Dan Entwistle, managing executive director at Church of the Resurrection, says the church approached more than a dozen stained-glass studios with the challenge. The window’s design needed to capture the biblical story of creation, humanity and eternity and, at the same time, make it feel personal and approachable.
When it came time to pick one, Judson stood out. The studio installed the 161 5-by-4-foot panels in three sessions from the fall of 2016 to the spring of 2017. “David’s team brought a breathtaking design,” Entwistle says, “and he intuitively understood how the window would draw people into the garden story before a word was spoken or a hymn was sung.”
The window’s scale is impressive, but Entwistle says its impact is deeply personal. People who see it for the first time tend to react with a gasp, followed by a moment of silence. “The window quite literally takes your breath away,” he says.
The new studio in South Pasadena and the Resurrection Window, among other innovations, helped David put his own mark on the family business. But changes like these also come with another responsibility: making sure he wasn’t the last to do it.
“It is a double-edged sword; inheriting a legacy business is such a great gift, but you don’t want to be the last to pass it on,” David says. “This is a very long line that you want to be able to pass off at some point.”
VISITORS TOURING Judson Studios just might have a sixth-generation Judson as their guide.
Ben Judson, David’s son, leads some of those tours, which are sold out through 2026, while attending USC and working at the studio. He grew up here much as his father did, surrounded by artists at work and stories of the Judsons who came before him. Now he is learning the craft himself, with David nearby to answer questions.
“One of the more challenging but also exciting aspects of working in the stained-glass industry is that the only way to learn the medium is to work directly with it,” Ben says. “My dad, being the amazing man and leader he is, is always open to teaching me about whatever I may be struggling with while I learn the business.”
But what Ben is learning isn’t exactly what the generations before him practiced. That evolution is part of what interests him. Traditional leaded stained glass remains rooted in techniques that have endured for generations, while the fused glass side of the business David helped develop continues to evolve.
“While the leaded stained glass portion has maintained its traditional practices, our fused glass practice is making strides every day in development as we continue to learn more about the medium,” Ben says. “Being fortunate enough, as a studio, to create two completely different art forms in such a niche industry is a blessing.”
David knows better than most that there is no guarantee where Ben’s interest will lead. He once left Los Angeles to find his own path before eventually returning to Judson Studios.
For now, father and son have something generations of Judsons before them had: time to work side by side and, in the process, carry the business into the future.
See For Yourself: The Lodge at Torrey Pines
Aztecs don’t have to travel to Los Angeles to see Judson Studios’ work. In San Diego, the family’s stained glass welcomes guests to The Lodge at Torrey Pines.
THE LODGE AT TORREY PINES’ DESIGN DRAWS ON ARTS AND Crafts architects Charles and Henry Greene. Judson Studios incorporated that influence at the luxury resort with stained-glass entry doors depicting Torrey pine trees. It was a distinctly local choice: the Torrey pine grows naturally only in coastal San Diego County and on Santa Rosa Island.
“David and his incredibly talented artisans brought institutional knowledge of Greene and Greene’s work to the craft and creation of The Lodge at Torrey Pines,” says Bill Evans, owner of Evans Hotels. “Judson Studios’ multigenerational eye for beauty was instrumental in ways I still cannot fully comprehend to this day.”
The Judson connection continues beyond the front doors. The Lodge named its poolside bar Judson’s in honor of the studio, and its work can also be found there. —Taylor Harris
