Elected bishop at age 48 by the December 1895 primary convention of the newly formed Diocese of Los Angeles, Joseph Horsfall Johnson was ordained and consecrated on February 24, 1896, in Christ Church, Detroit, where he had served as rector since 1886. The date marked the Feast of St. Matthias, and the first Southland parish organized during Johnson’s 32-year episcopate – St. Matthias Church in Whittier – was so named to honor the occasion of his consecration. Bishop Johnson – a native of Schenectady, New York – and his wife, Isabel, settled in Pasadena with their son, Reginald, who became one of Southern California’s most notable architects who designed, along with numerous residences, landmark hotels – the Santa Barbara Biltmore and La Valencia, La Jolla – as well as Pasadena’s All Saints Church and L.A.’s former St. Paul’s Cathedral on Figueroa Street north of Wilshire Boulevard downtown. He also expanded L.A.’s Hospital of the Good Samaritan, for which Bishop Johnson raised more than $1 million in support during his episcopate. Some 30 congregations were established under Bishop Johnson’s leadership, and the Neighborhood Settlement, Seamen’s Church Institute, Hillsides Home for Children, the Episcopal Home, and Harvard School became diocesan institutions. With Ellen Browning Scripps and Virginia Scripps, he founded the Bishop’s School in La Jolla. Bishop Johnson died May 16, 1928 in Pasadena at age 80 and was buried in the San Gabriel Cemetery bordering the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour.
