diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/BlockMatrix.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/BlockMatrix.scala
index 09527dcf5d9e..72b04260237e 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/BlockMatrix.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/BlockMatrix.scala
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.{Logging, Partitioner, SparkException}
 import org.apache.spark.annotation.Since
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.{DenseMatrix, Matrices, Matrix, SparseMatrix}
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaRDD
 import org.apache.spark.storage.StorageLevel
 
 /**
@@ -436,3 +437,29 @@ class BlockMatrix @Since("1.3.0") (
     }
   }
 }
+
+@Since("1.6.0")
+object BlockMatrix {
+  /** A Java-friendly auxiliary factory. */
+  @Since("1.6.0")
+  def from[M <: Matrix](
+      blocks: JavaRDD[((Integer, Integer), M)],
+      rowsPerBlock: Int,
+      colsPerBlock: Int,
+      nRows: Long,
+      nCols: Long): BlockMatrix = {
+    val rdd = blocks.rdd.map { case ((blockRowIndex, blockColIndex), subMatrix) =>
+      ((blockRowIndex.toInt, blockColIndex.toInt), subMatrix.asInstanceOf[Matrix])
+    }
+    new BlockMatrix(rdd, rowsPerBlock, colsPerBlock, nRows, nCols)
+  }
+
+  /** A Java-friendly auxiliary factory without the input of the number of rows and columns. */
+  @Since("1.6.0")
+  def from[M <: Matrix](
+      blocks: JavaRDD[((Integer, Integer), M)],
+      rowsPerBlock: Int,
+      colsPerBlock: Int): BlockMatrix = {
+    from(blocks, rowsPerBlock, colsPerBlock, 0L, 0L)
+  }
+}
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
index 52c0f19c645d..42b3c2190152 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/RowMatrix.scala
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ import breeze.numerics.{sqrt => brzSqrt}
 
 import org.apache.spark.Logging
 import org.apache.spark.annotation.Since
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaRDD
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg._
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.stat.{MultivariateOnlineSummarizer, MultivariateStatisticalSummary}
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD
@@ -675,6 +676,25 @@ class RowMatrix @Since("1.0.0") (
 @Since("1.0.0")
 object RowMatrix {
 
+  /** A Java-friendly auxiliary factory. */
+  @Since("1.6.0")
+  def from[V <: Vector](
+      rows: JavaRDD[V],
+      nRows: Long,
+      nCols: Int): RowMatrix = {
+    val rdd = rows.rdd.map(_.asInstanceOf[Vector])
+    new RowMatrix(rdd, nRows, nCols)
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Alternative Java-friendly auxiliary factory
+   * leaving matrix dimensions to be determined automatically.
+   */
+  @Since("1.6.0")
+  def from[V <: Vector](rows: JavaRDD[V]): RowMatrix = {
+    from(rows, 0L, 0)
+  }
+
   /**
    * Fills a full square matrix from its upper triangular part.
    */
diff --git a/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaBlockMatrixSuite.java b/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaBlockMatrixSuite.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..53fac2a75d58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaBlockMatrixSuite.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+package org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.distributed;
+
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
+import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.DenseMatrix;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import scala.Tuple2;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+public class JavaBlockMatrixSuite {
+  private transient JavaSparkContext sc;
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() {
+    sc = new JavaSparkContext("local", "JavaBlockMatrixSuite");
+  }
+
+  @After
+  public void tearDown() {
+    sc.stop();
+    sc = null;
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void blockMatrixConstruction() {
+    List<Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>> blocks = Arrays.asList(
+      new Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>(
+        new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(0, 0), new DenseMatrix(2, 2, new double[]{1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 2.0})),
+      new Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>(
+        new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(0, 1), new DenseMatrix(2, 2, new double[]{0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0})),
+      new Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>(
+        new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(1, 0), new DenseMatrix(2, 2, new double[]{3.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0})),
+      new Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>(
+        new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(1, 1), new DenseMatrix(2, 2, new double[]{1.0, 2.0, 0.0, 1.0})),
+      new Tuple2<Tuple2<Integer, Integer>, DenseMatrix>(
+        new Tuple2<Integer, Integer>(2, 1), new DenseMatrix(1, 2, new double[]{1.0, 5.0})));
+    BlockMatrix blockMatrix = BlockMatrix.from(sc.parallelize(blocks), 2, 2);
+    final DenseMatrix expectedMatrix = new DenseMatrix(5, 4, new double[]{
+      1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0,
+      0.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.0,
+      3.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0,
+      0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 1.0,
+      0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 5.0}, true);
+    assertEquals(5L, blockMatrix.numRows());
+    assertEquals(4L, blockMatrix.numCols());
+    assertEquals(expectedMatrix, blockMatrix.toLocalMatrix());
+  }
+}
diff --git a/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaRowMatrixSuite.java b/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaRowMatrixSuite.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f25103cc39e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mllib/src/test/java/org/apache/spark/mllib/linalg/distributed/JavaRowMatrixSuite.java
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+package org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.distributed;
+
+import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
+import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.DenseMatrix;
+import org.apache.spark.mllib.linalg.DenseVector;
+import org.junit.After;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+public class JavaRowMatrixSuite {
+  private transient JavaSparkContext sc;
+
+  @Before
+  public void setUp() {
+    sc = new JavaSparkContext("local", "JavaRowMatrixSuite");
+  }
+
+  @After
+  public void tearDown() {
+    sc.stop();
+    sc = null;
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void rowMatrixConstruction() {
+    List<DenseVector> rows = Arrays.asList(
+      new DenseVector(new double[]{1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0}),
+      new DenseVector(new double[]{0.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.0}),
+      new DenseVector(new double[]{3.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0}),
+      new DenseVector(new double[]{0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 1.0}),
+      new DenseVector(new double[]{0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 5.0}));
+    RowMatrix rowMatrix = RowMatrix.from(sc.parallelize(rows));
+    final DenseMatrix expectedMatrix = new DenseMatrix(5, 4, new double[]{
+      1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0,
+      0.0, 2.0, 1.0, 0.0,
+      3.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0,
+      0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 1.0,
+      0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 5.0}, true);
+    assertEquals(5L, rowMatrix.numRows());
+    assertEquals(4L, rowMatrix.numCols());
+    assertEquals(expectedMatrix.toBreeze(), rowMatrix.toBreeze());
+  }
+}