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Robert Stacy-Judd Collection circa 1923-1962.
MANUSCRIPT 2511-2512
Collection Overview
Title:
Robert Stacy-Judd Collection circa 1923-1962Creator/Contributor:
Stacy-Judd, Robert Benjamin, 1884-, creatorCreator/Contributor:
Bramble, F. G.Creator/Contributor:
Ingle, Marjorie I.Creator/Contributor:
Montgomery, S. R.Creator/Contributor:
Stone, R. H.Creator/Contributor:
Albertype Company (Riverside, Calif.)Creator/Contributor:
House-Warven (Firm)Creator/Contributor:
White's Photographic StudiosAbstract:
This collection is a sampling of some of the works by Robert Benjamin Stacy-Judd, an architect flourishing in Southern California
from the 1920s through the 1960s. These samplings include a letter, a newspaper article, an announcement for a lecture series
and a book "Kabah : adventures in the jungles of Yucatan." The items reflect Stacy-Judd's endorsement of Maya Art and Architecture
as an ideal theme to base an American architecture. Stacy-Judd's non-Mayan works are also referenced in this collection, in
the form of photographs, hand-painted postcards, charcoal drawings, pen and ink-sketches and a portfolio book that has a colorful
architectural rendering of the La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club (1927). A book, "The Mayan Revival Style, by Marjorie I. Ingle
is also included in this collection.
Date:
1923 (issued)Contents:
Box 2511: Production series: Textual: Mayan illustrated book jacket for Stacy-Judd's book "The Ancient Mayas."-- Robert Stacy-Judd
lecture series schedule. -- Authored newspaper article "Atlantis, Mother of Empires" (1951) written for the House-Warven,
Center of Light, publication (Hollywood).
Continued Production series: Textual: -- Autographed portfolio book enclosing: 1926 color rendering of the La Jolla Beach
and Yacht Club, photographic prints by R. H. Stone of Stacy-Judd's charcoal sketches of the Soboba Hot Springs Hotel guest
cottages, prints of several residences built in the Los Angeles vicinity (Guy D. Sisson, George Brown, J.D. Carey and Mr.
Warrington), photographic prints of The Aztec Hotel in Monrovia (1929), The Maya Hotel in Tijuana, the Empire Theater in Edmonton,
Alberta and the library and the administration building of the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in Ojai. -- Book, "Mayan Revival
style," by Marjorie Ingle. -- Stacy-Judd's book "Kabah : adventures in the jungles of Yucatan." See CSL main catalog (Call
no. 916.26 S77a).
Box 2512: Production series: Art: 6 assorted pen and ink sketches. -- 26 Christmas season pen and ink greeting postcards dated
1947-1956. -- 15 hand-painted postcards of the American Indian style guest cottages at Soboba Hot Springs Hotel. -- 12 photographs
of the Soboba Hot Springs Hotel guest cottages.
Personal series: Photographs: 6 mounted (3 1/2 x 4 1/2"). -- 4 loose (3 1/2 x 5"). -- 1 small portrait (3 1/2 x 2 1/2"). --
3 prints (8 x 10"), 1 of Stacy-Judd posing with Edward and Joy Ashley. -- 1 portrait (7 3/4 x 9 3/8") of Mr. and Mrs Robert
B. Stacy-Judd.
Personal Series: Correspondence: 2 outgoing typewritten letters. -- 1 incoming handwritten letter. -- 1 marriage certificate.
Promotional Series: Ephemera: The Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles. -- Soboba Mineral Hot Springs stationery. -- Soboba Hot
Springs promotional postcards and advertising clip. -- imprinted envelope tab. -- 3 sketched cocktail napkins. -- Xeroxed
1929 postcard advertising the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia. -- 2 miscellaneous envelopes.
Subject:
n-us-caAshley, Edward -- 1904-2000
Ashley, Joy
Stacy-Judd, Robert Benjamin -- 1884-1975
Webster, Marjorie E
Sisson, Guy D
Aztec Hotel (Monrovia, Calif.)
Empire Theatre (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Krotona Institute of Theosopy (Ojai, Calif.)
La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club (La Jolla, Calif.)
The Maya Hotel (Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico)
Soboba Hot Springs Hotel (San Jacinto, Calif.)
Note:
Robert Stacy-Judd Collection, circa 1923-1962.
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.
Robert B. Stacy-Judd, an architect, came to the United States from England where he had been born, (1884), educated (1905)
and practiced architecture until 1913. He came to the United States, first residing in North Dakota, listed as an architect
from 1914-1918. He was active in Canada from 1920-1922, building the Empire Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta.
Stacy-Judd came to Los Angeles in 1922 and was associated with architecture in the Los Angeles and greater Southern California
area until his death in 1975.
Actively and passionately, he sought style motifs to base an architecture for the United States that would be "100% American."
A result of this search was to acknowledge and promote Maya Revival style architecture. A letter, written to Marjorie E. Webster
in 1923, expresses Stacy-Judd's enthusiasm for the Maya Revival architecture as the greatest theme, "ideally suited to American
conditions," and the best motif to base an "All-American" architecture. The second page (first page is missing) of a letter
dated December 5, 1929, refers to getting passports and visas for "our trip to the Yucatan."
One of the first uses of Stacy-Judd's Maya-Revival architecture was in designing the First Baptist Church in Ventura in 1923,
where after meeting a "fulisade of objections in the original suggestion ... a far seeing Board of Directors saw its possibilities
..." The Aztec Hotel in Monrovia (1925), the Maya Hotel in Tijuana and the Masonic Lodge in North Hollywood (1951) are other
examples.
Notable non-Mayan themes designed by Stacy-Judd in Southern California include the Spanish Farmhouse architecture of the Krotona
Theosophical Institute in Ojai, the southwestern American Indian architecture of the Soboba Hot Springs Hotel in San Jacinto
and the Mediterranean, Spanish-Hacienda architecture of the La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club in La Jolla.
A passionate architect, author and artist, Stacy-Judd is attributed to introducing the Maya Revival style architecture into
American building themes. As an addendum, the collection includes a marriage certificate showing that Robert Benjamin Stacy-Judd
married Marjorie E. Webster, August 5, 1949. He passed away in Los Angeles, February 10, 1975.
Type:
biographyPhysical Description:
print
2 manuscript boxes 8 x30 x 38 cm.
Language:
English
Identifier:
MANUSCRIPT 2511-2512
Origin:
CaliforniaCopyright Note:
Unrestricted. Please credit California State Library.