A Magical Stained Glass Museum Glows in a South Texas Town

The Coordinates series celebrates lesser-known locales worth visiting across the state. The Rio Grande Valley city of San Juan (population 37,000) may not seem a likely spot for the most comprehensive stained glass window collection in the United States. But located between a Pizza Hut and a barbecue joint, in a fairly new building designed to resemble a Gothic cathedral, is the Gelman Stained Glass Museum, home to 174 church windows created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (including many by Tiffany Studios). Acquired over 45 years by local anesthesiologist Lawrence Gelman as a tribute to his Catholic wife, the collection—most of it sourced from churches in the Northeast—grew until it filled his garage and then a few warehouses. “Let’s just say that hobby kind of spiraled…

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