At BeauVerre, owners continue almost 200 years of stained glass legacy

Jay initially set up shop in his basement, but when he and his wife, Linda, learned she was pregnant, she had him move out to the garage.

“I told her I’d love to open a studio, and she said, ‘If you do, I’ll leave you,’” Moorman said.

“True,” Linda said.

The couple compromised, finding a local woman who had stained glass experience, and Jay opened a studio around 1990 in Kittyhawk Plaza, a strip mall in Middletown.

The woman worked days at the studio, and Jay would work nights and weekends. He worked at both GE and the stained glass studio for another 10 years before quitting GE in the early 2000s.

“Without telling me,” Linda added.

“I never looked back,” Jay said.

The couple owns BeauVerre Riordan Studios at 1054 Central Ave., which they’ve occupied for about 25 years.

Around the time Jay quit GE and within the first couple of months they were open at 1054 Central Ave., they completed a 500 door and window stained glass project for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.

Fifty percent of BeauVerre’s work is restoration and the other 50 percent is original work, and there are classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays, which include beginner projects and fundamentals. Janet Hydeman is the main instructor and also has a studio in Dayton.

“One end or another, it’s busy,” Jay said.

The space itself is full of stained glass artworks, mostly made by Jay. Other smaller items like jewelry and glass ornaments are available.

“Stained glass makes everybody feel warm and fuzzy when they look at it,” Linda said. “In church, when light comes through, that glow ... it just makes you feel good.”

Built-in wood bookcases line the back dining room, and many of those pieces came from schools and libraries torn down in nearby communities.

While the Moormans’ own stained glass business started around 1990, BeauVerre Riordan Studios as a whole is the oldest continually operating stained glass studio in the country.

In 1838, Coulter and Finagin’s, a stained glass studio, was started by William Coulter and Joseph Finagin. In 1892, it became G.C. Riordan & Company when Gerald Collins Riordan purchased the studio.

“They were definitely at least as good as Tiffany,” Jay said.

The business continued to change names and went through many different owners. In 1975, the studio’s ownership passed to Walter Bambach, who had worked at Riordan since 1955.

“Every time I, as BeauVerre, went to a church or any kind of job, Walter was there,” Jay said.

A few years after BeauVerre opened on Central Avenue, Bambach fell ill, and his wife reached out to the Moormans for help on a two-year church job.

Bambach passed away about a year after the job was completed, and Bambach’s wife asked the Moormans to take over Riordan.

The 24,000-square-foot building contains much of BeauVerre’s and Riordan’s archives, equipment and art — now housed under the same roof and continuing the stained glass legacy.

Jay, now 78, has no plans to retire.

“I have nothing wrong with me,” he said.

Jay continues to keep busy and is in the process of renovating the space above BeauVerre into a loft apartment.