While the origins of stained glass are in the windows of cathedrals, it eventually became popular to install in homes and restaurants.
The popularity of stained glass art outside of religious institutions became even more widespread with the help of artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany and, here in Dallas, Octavio Medellin, founder of the Creative Arts Center of Dallas.
You can see stained glass in museums everywhere; there's even a stained glass museum in San Juan. The Gelman Stained Glass Museum is home to some Tiffany windows.
Here are some other notable places to check out stained glass art in North Texas.
Kalachandji's Restaurant and Temple
Where: Kalachandji's, 5430 Gurley Ave, Dallas, TX 75223
Who made it: Jon Thoreson, who also goes by his spirtual name, Yasomatinandana Das (also called Yaso)
Background: There are stained glass windows visible on your way into Kalachandji's, as well as stained glass lamps on the ceilings, but the most notable window, the peacock window, is tucked away inside the restaurant.
Most of the glass for the peacock window was custom made by Uroboros glass studio in Oregon, which was a studio founded by Eric Lovell who successfully reproduced ring mottle glass, which was first invented by Tiffany Studios, and thought to be lost to stained glass since the studio closed in 1931. Uroboros studio also closed in the '90s.
Fun fact: The peacock window contains roughly 2,000 pieces of glass. It took about a month for the artist to make the peacock window. He said he worked on the window for some times 12 hours a day while he was a Hare Krishna monk; all in the service of his guru, Tamal Krishna Goswami. Yaso has two more similar windows of parrots in the Prabhupada’s Museum next door, which was originally one of the personal rooms of the founder of the Hare Krishna movement, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Yaso made those windows in the '80's and then took a 38 year break, and didn’t make another stained glass window until 2022. He lives in Brooklyn now, but comes back to the Dallas temple often.
Beth-El Congregation synagogue
Where: 4900 Briarhaven Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76109
Who made it: Tim McClure
Background: The Beth-El Congregation building opened in 2000, which is when the stained glass windows were installed. When you walk in the building an exhibit showcases 9 stained glass medallions made in 1948. According to Hollace Ava Weiner, writer and director of the Forth Worth Jewish archives, these are preserved from stained glass windows that were in the old Beth-El building in the Near Southside, before they moved to a new synagogue in Southwest Fort Worth. Each of the medallions has a painting of an object that was used by Jewish communities who perished in the Holocaust. The exhibit is called “Stained glass through the prism of time”, which is meant to be evocative of the phrase “L'dor V'dor”, which is a Jewish saying meaning “from generation to generation.”
The exhibit is still open, but you have to call and arrange a time to visit with a guide. Tim McClure's stained glass mural is in the main sanctuary, and in the adjacent chapel he also made more stained glass windows depicting the phrase “the world stands on three things”.
Fun fact: McClure's sanctuary window has 90 individual glass panels, and the central section of the window has a flame-like design, which is meant to symbolize "the Light of Creation".
Sparkman Hillcrest Mausoleum
Where: 7405 W Northwest Hwy, Dallas, TX 75225
Who made it: Unnamed artists
Background: According to the Dignity Memorial website, "The original Sparkman’s funeral home remained at the downtown location until it moved in 1968 to its present location at Boedeker and the Northwest Highway, resulting in what we know now as Sparkman/Hillcrest. This new corporation gave North Dallas its major full-service funeral home surrounded by the rolling acres of a cemetery that dates back to 1850." The cemetery is split into sections, and the mausoleum has several windows that are dedicated to different people and families.
Fun fact: Many famous people, including Freddie King and Mickey Mantle are buried at this cemetery.
Meddlesome Moth
Where: 1621 Oak Lawn Ave, Dallas, TX 75207
Who made it: Jeff Smith & Architectural Stained Glass, Inc.
Background: Meddlesome Moth is a tap house in Dallas' Design District. The stained glass windows are one of the first things you see when you walk in. The windows get a lot attraction, and the restaurant is usually very busy.
Fun fact: These windows used to be in Dallas’ first Hard Rock Cafe on McKinney at Routh, and opened in 1986. After the business shut down in 2009, the windows were taken out and restored, with the help of Kittrell Riffkind studio, and moved to Meddlesome Moth the following year.
Parkland Hospital meditation room
Where: 5200 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX 75235
Who made it: Michael Riffkind
Background: The window has been there since 1987, and was transferred from the original Parkland chapel, and it survived the move. The stained glass window uses mouth blown European glass. The idea of the meditation room is that there needs to be a space for spiritual support for patients and families, and the stained glass window is at the center of that.
Fun fact: The window is an abstract, upward movement design, meant to emote an uplifting feeling.
Church of the Incarnation
Where: 3966 McKinney Ave, Dallas, TX 75204
Who made it: Canterbury Cathedral Studios, Foster Stained Glass
Background: In 2017 the Church of the Incarnation in Uptown Dallas installed a 19-foot stained glass window that came all the way across the ocean from the United Kingdom. The window is located above the altar in the sanctuary.
Fun fact: This took thousands of hours to make, and production for the window started back in 2003.
Thanks-Giving Square
Where: 1627 Pacific Ave, Dallas, TX 75201
Who made it: Gabriel Loire and Philip Johnson
Background: The spiral shaped window was built in 1976 and is referred to as the “Glory Window". It's located on the upper level of the Chapel. The Thanksgiving square website explains that the chapel has a "winding white structure symbolizing the ancient spiral of life and the infinite upward reach of the human spirit." Thanks-Giving square is meant to welcome people of all religions and cultures.
Fun fact: According to the Thanks-Giving Square guide, "The Glory Window takes its name from Psalm 19 and contains 73 panels of faceted glass following the spiral shape of the ceiling. Lower panels feature varying shades of blue, which to Loire represented the color of peace."
Temple Emanu-El of Dallas
Where: 8500 Hillcrest Rd, Dallas, TX 75225
Who made it: Gyorgy Kepes
Background: According to the Temple Emanu-El Dallas website, "Gyorgy Kepes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology served as art coordinator for the original building in 1957, incorporating the work of local artisans John Szymak, Velma Dozier, Octavio Medellín, and Charles Williams, and international artists Anni Albers, Marc Chagall and Ben Shahn."
Fun fact: Connie Dufner with Temple Emanu-El shared that, "the walls of the sanctuary grow more vivid in hue the closer they get to the holy ark at the center of the pulpit. The color progression of the stained glass windows is meant to be symbolic of the movement from the outside world to the divine light."
