You’ve likely seen the work of Phil Watkins Jr. and his wife, Jane, around Colorado, but you may not know it. It’s in Denver’s Fairmount cemetery. The Colorado governor’s mansion. Perhaps even your place of worship. Together the Watkins create and restore stained glass windows around the state and beyond, and on Wednesday they'll be honored by Historic Denver.
Stained glass work is a Watkins family tradition with roots in Colorado's pioneer days -- and, before that, in 18th Century England. Phil Watkins is the fourth generation in his family to create stained glass in Colorado.
He has fabricated glass for 380 churches, and his favorite work is a recreation they did of Leonardo DaVinci’s “The Last Supper” at Our Lady of the Snow Catholic Church in Granby, Colo. It's true to the original with one exception: the Colorado landscape in the background.
The Watkins are currently restoring stained glass windows at Colorado's Capitol.
Historic Denver plans to honor the couple on Wednesday during its sold-out 44th Annual Dinner and Awards at the Brown Palace. The Watkins will receive the Ann Love Award, which honors unlikely preservationists.
The award is named for the wife of former Colorado Gov. John Love. Though Ann Love was a key figure in saving the Molly Brown House and establishing Historic Denver, she never thought of herself as a preservationist, according to Historic Denver.
