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, where he was 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, reveals his 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 he married Marjorie E. Webster, August 5, 1949. He passed away in Los Angeles, February 10, 1975.
From the description of Robert Stacy-Judd Collection circa 1923-1962. (California State Library). WorldCat record id: 64565826
