Biography

Carl Huneke was born in Achim bei Bremen, Germany in 1898.  He started his stained glass career as a 13-year-old apprentice in Bremen, Germany.  He was a bright student who had been offered a scholarship to continue his academic studies.  But, he had to contribute to his family’s income, since his mother was a widow with nine children.  He loved art and eagerly applied himself to stained glass.  In 1925, he immigrated to San Francisco, and was employed by Edward La Potka at Church Art Glass Studio.  For the next several years, Mr. Huneke studied English and oil painting at night school.  He prospered in his occupation until the Depression.  Then there was no work in stained glass for several years.  To survive the Depression, Mr. Huneke and his wife, Lee, started a small neighborhood grocery store.  

The one brief bright spot during the Depression years occurred in 1931.  Charles Connick, the renowned Boston stained glass artist, created stained glass windows for Grace Cathedral.  By chance, he hired Carl Huneke from the union hall to assist in the installation of those windows.  From that incidental contact, the two men developed great respect for each other, and Carl Huneke assisted Connick Studio with their work in the San Francisco area for more than thirty years.  

In the late 1930’s, stained glass work revived and Mr. Huneke was called back to work at Church Art Glass.  He soon became principal artist for that firm.  During creation of windows for Saint Mary of the Annunciation Church in Stockton (now Cathedral of the Annunciation), the imperious Monsignor William E. McGough fired the firm, but insisted that Carl Huneke stay on to complete the windows in the church.  Reluctantly, Carl Huneke acquiesced, and Century Stained Glass Studio was born.  The stained glass windows created by Mr. Huneke for the new Saint Mary’s were a great success.  

Work on Saint Mary of the Annunciation was not quite complete when Mr. Huneke started work on the stained glass windows at Saint Vincent de Paul.  It was Charles Connick who had recommended Carl Huneke for the job.  

Century Stained Glass Studio was located in a tiny space at 374 Fillmore Street.  That space was sufficient for a workshop large enough to lay out individual sections of large windows, but was not large enough for an entire window.  The same was true for the glass easel which stood upright in the shop.  Great care was taken to match the continuity of the panels in geometry, color and intensity without ever seeing them together until the final installation in the church.  The shop was too small for a kiln.  It was located in the back room of their grocery store at the corner of Page and Lyon Streets.  

In September 1950, Mr. Huneke moved his Studio to 157 Fillmore at the corner of Waller in San Francisco.  That space provided room for artwork, layout and fabrication of windows and a kiln for firing the glass.  The Studio remained in that location until it was closed at Mr. Huneke’s death in 1972.