Robert Stacy-Judd papers, circa 1900-circa 1975

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Summary

Creators:
Stacy-Judd, Robert and Stacy-Judd, Robert
Extent:
81 Linear Feet (39 record storage boxes, 14 flat file drawers, 1 pedestal, and 1 bust)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Robert Stacy-Judd papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara

Background

Scope and content:

The Robert Stacy-Judd papers span 85 linear feet and date from circa 1911 to circa 1975. The collection includes his unpublished manuscript, Autobiography of an architect and other writings, and o those about ancient American culture, particularly what Stacy-Judd identified as Mayan; audio and moving image recordings, correspondence, research files, newspaper and magazine clippings, building material samples, documentation of his student work and travel to South America, photographs, sketches, architectural drawings and presentation boards for buildings, built and unbuilt, that he designed for sites in North Dakota and in California.

Biographical / historical:

Robert Stacy-Judd was born in London, England on June 21, 1884. He attended Acton College, Regent Street Polytechnic Institute, and the South Kensington Science and Art Institute in London, graduating in 1905.

Stacy-Judd apprenticed under architect James Thompson for four years. From 1906-1907, he was an architect with the surveying department for the Great Northern Railway Company in London. From 1907-1908, he was the architect in charge of ground office construction for the Franco-British Expedition in London. Between 1911 and 1922, Stacy-Judd traveled and worked in Minot, North Dakota as well as the Canadian province of Alberta. In 1922, he made an exploratory trip to California and before the end of the year had moved and started an architecture practice in Los Angeles.

In 1923, he encountered the pre-Columbian architecture of Mexico and Central America through the 1841 book Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan by John L. Stephens, which significantly influenced his architectural work. A year later, in 1924, Stacy-Judd designed the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, near Los Angeles, which was his first design in pre-Columbian revival. Other notable built projects include: the First Baptist Church in Ventura, California; the Philosophical Research Society Building in Hollywood California; the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in the Ojai Valley; and the Masonic Temple in North Hollywood California. Stacy-Judd wrote and lectured on Mayan architecture, and during the depression embarked on a book project concerning the lost City of Atlantis. Robert Stacy-Judd died in 1975.

Custodial history:

Gift of Robert Stacey-Judd, 1973. Additional materials gifted by Charles Podmore, 1975.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Preferred citation:

Robert Stacy-Judd papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara

Location of this collection:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-7130, US
Contact:
(805) 893-2724
adc@museum.ucsb.edu
Website