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Hearst Castle

April 03, 2023

Not to be confused with Hurst Castle, Henry VIII's Device Fort near Lymington in England.

Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947. Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.

Hearst Castle
La Cuesta Encantada
Casa Grande, inspired by the Church of Santa María la Mayor, Ronda, Spain, forms the centerpiece of Hearst's estate.
Nearest citySan Simeon, California, United States
Coordinates35°41′07″N 121°10′04″W / 35.68528°N 121.16778°W / 35.68528; -121.16778Coordinates: 35°41′07″N 121°10′04″W / 35.68528°N 121.16778°W / 35.68528; -121.16778
AreaMore than 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2)
Built1919–1947[3]
ArchitectJulia Morgan
Architectural styleSpanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, other late 19th and 20th century revival styles
Websitewww.hearstcastle.org
NRHP reference No.72000253[1]
CHISL No.640[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 22, 1972
Designated CHISLApril 28, 1958

George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre (162 km2) estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth. In 1919 Hearst inherited some $11,000,000 (equivalent to $172,000,000 in 2021) and estates including the land at San Simeon. He used his fortune to further develop his media empire of newspapers, magazines and radio stations, the profits from which supported a lifetime of building and collecting. Within a few months of Phoebe Hearst's death, he had commissioned Morgan to build "something a little more comfortable up on the hill", the genesis of the present castle. Morgan was an architectural pioneer; "America's first truly independent female architect",[4] she was the first woman to study architecture at the School of Beaux-Arts in Paris, the first to have her own architectural practice in California and the first female winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. She worked in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years, and the castle at San Simeon is her best-known creation.

In the Roaring Twenties and into the 1930s, Hearst Castle reached its social peak. Originally intended to be a family home for Hearst, his wife Millicent and their five sons, by 1925 Hearst's marriage was effectively over and San Simeon became his domain and that of his mistress, the actress Marion Davies. Their guest list included many of the Hollywood stars of the period; Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable all visited, some on multiple occasions. Political luminaries encompassed Calvin Coolidge and Winston Churchill while other notables included Charles Lindbergh, P. G. Wodehouse and Bernard Shaw. Visitors gathered each evening at Casa Grande for drinks in the assembly room, dined in the refectory and watched the latest movie in the theater before retiring to the luxurious accommodation provided by the guest houses of Casa del Mar, Casa del Monte and Casa del Sol. During the days, they admired the views, rode, played tennis, bowls or golf and swam in the "most sumptuous swimming pool on earth".[5] While Hearst entertained, Morgan built; the castle was under almost continual construction from 1920 until 1939, with work resuming after the end of World War II until Hearst's final departure in 1947.

Hearst, his castle and his lifestyle were satirized by Orson Welles in his 1941 film Citizen Kane. In the film, which Hearst sought to suppress, Charles Foster Kane's palace Xanadu is said to contain "paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace – a collection of everything so big it can never be cataloged or appraised; enough for ten museums; the loot of the world".[6] Welles's allusion referred to Hearst's mania for collecting; the dealer Joseph Duveen called him the "Great Accumulator". With a passion for acquisition almost from childhood, he bought architectural elements, art, antiques, statuary, silverware and textiles on an epic scale. Shortly after starting San Simeon, he began to conceive of making the castle "a museum of the best things that I can secure".[7] Foremost among his purchases were architectural elements from Western Europe, particularly Spain; over thirty ceilings, doorcases, fireplaces and mantels, entire monasteries, paneling and a medieval tithe barn were purchased, shipped to Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses and transported on to California. Much was then incorporated into the fabric of Hearst Castle. In addition, he built up collections of more conventional art and antiques of high quality; his assemblage of ancient Greek vases was one of the world's largest.

In May 1947, Hearst's health compelled him and Marion Davies to leave the castle for the last time. He died in Los Angeles in 1951. Morgan died in 1957. The following year, the Hearst family gave the castle and many of its contents to the State of California and the mansion was opened to the public in June 1958. It has since operated as the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument and attracts about 750,000 visitors annually. The Hearst family retains ownership of the majority of the 82,000 acres (332 km2) wider estate and, under a land conservation agreement reached in 2005, has worked with the California State Parks Department and American Land Conservancy to preserve the undeveloped character of the area; the setting for the castle which Bernard Shaw is said to have described as "what God would have built if he had had the money".[8]

History

Early history: to 1864

 
The bell tower of the restored Mission San Miguel Arcángel

The coastal range of Southern California has been occupied since prehistoric times.[9] The indigenous inhabitants were the Salinans and the Chumash.[10] In the late 18th century, Spanish missions were established in the area to convert the Native American population.[11] The Mission San Miguel Arcángel, one of the largest, opened in what is now San Luis Obispo county in 1797.[12] By the 1840s, the mission had declined and the priests departed. In that decade, the governors of Mexican California distributed the mission lands in a series of grants. Three of these were Rancho Piedra Blanca, Rancho Santa Rosa and Rancho San Simeon.[13] The Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 saw the area pass into the control of the United States under the terms of the Mexican Cession. The California Gold Rush of the next decade brought an influx of American settlers, among whom was the 30-year old George Hearst.[14]

Buying the land: 1865–1919

Further information: George Hearst

Born in Missouri in 1820, Hearst made his fortune as a miner, notably at the Comstock Lode and the Homestake Mine. He then undertook a political career, becoming a senator in 1886, and bought The San Francisco Examiner.[15] Investing in land, he bought the Piedra Blanca property in 1865 and subsequently extended his holdings with the acquisition of most of the Santa Rosa estate, and much of the San Simeon lands.[16] In the 1870s George Hearst built a ranch house on the estate, which remains a private property maintained by the Hearst Corporation,[17] and the San Simeon area became a site for family camping expeditions, including his young son, William.[18] A particularly favored spot was named Camp Hill, the site of the future Hearst Castle.[19] Years later Hearst recalled his early memories of the place. "My father brought me to San Simeon as a boy. I had to come up the slope hanging on to the tail of a pony. We lived in a cabin on this spot and I could see forever. That's the West – forever."[20] George Hearst developed the estate somewhat, introducing beef and dairy cattle, planting extensive fruit orchards, and expanding the wharf facilities at San Simeon Bay. He also bred racehorses.[21] While his father developed the ranch, Hearst and his mother traveled, including an eighteen-month tour of Europe in 1873, where Hearst's lifelong obsession with art collecting began.[22]

At George Hearst's death in 1891, he left an estate of $18 million to his widow including the California ranch.[23] Phoebe Hearst shared the cultural and artistic interests of her son, collecting art and patronizing architects. She was also a considerable philanthropist, founding schools and libraries, supporting the fledgling University of California, Berkeley, including the funding of the Hearst Mining Building in memory of her husband, and making major donations to a range of women's organizations, including the YWCA.[24] During this period, probably in the late 1890s, Mrs Hearst encountered Julia Morgan, a young architecture student at Berkeley.[18] On Phoebe Hearst's own death in 1919, Hearst inherited the ranch, which had grown to 250,000 acres (1,012 km2)[3] and 14 mi (23 km) of coastline,[25] as well as $11 million. Within days, he was at Morgan's San Francisco office.[a][27]

Morgan and Hearst: "a true collaboration"

 
 
"A true collaboration". Left: Julia Morgan in about 1926. Right: Hearst around 1910.
Main articles: Julia Morgan and William Randolph Hearst

Julia Morgan, born in 1872, was forty-seven when Hearst entered her office in 1919. Her biographer Mark A. Wilson has described her subsequent career as that of "America's first independent full-time woman architect".[28] After studying at Berkeley, where she worked with Bernard Maybeck,[29] in 1898 she became the first woman to win entry to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.[30] Passing out from the École in 1902, Morgan returned to San Francisco and took up a post at the architectural practice of John Galen Howard.[31] Howard recognized Morgan's talents, but also exploited them – "... the best thing about this person is, I pay her almost nothing, as it is a woman"[32] – and in 1904, she passed the California architects' licensing examination, the first woman to do so,[33] establishing her own office at 456 Montgomery Street in 1906.[34] During her time with Howard, Morgan was commissioned by Phoebe Hearst to undertake work at her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona estate at Pleasanton.[35] This led to work at Wyntoon and to a number of commissions from Hearst himself; an unexecuted design for a mansion at Sausalito, north of San Francisco, a cottage at the Grand Canyon, and the Los Angeles Examiner Building.[b][18]

In 1919, when he turned up at Morgan's office, Hearst was fifty-six years old and the owner of a publishing empire that included twenty-eight newspapers, thirteen magazines, eight radio stations, four film studios, extensive real-estate holdings and thirty-one thousand employees.[36][37] He was also a significant public figure: although his political endeavors had proved largely unsuccessful, the influence he exerted through his very direct control of his media empire attracted fame and opprobrium in equal measure. In 1917, one biographer described him as "the most hated man in the country".[38] The actor Ralph Bellamy, a guest at San Simeon in the mid-1930s, recorded Hearst's working methods in a description of a party in the assembly room: "the party was quite gay. And in the midst of it, Mr Hearst came in. There was a (teletype machine) just inside and he stopped and he read it. He went to a table and picked up a phone. He asked for the editor of (his) San Francisco newspaper and he said, 'Put this in a two-column box of the front pages of all the newspapers tomorrow morning.' And without notes he dictated an editorial".[39]

Morgan and Hearst's partnership at San Simeon lasted from 1919, until his final departure from the castle in 1947. Their correspondence, preserved in the Julia Morgan archive in the Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, runs to some 3,700 letters and telegrams.[c][41] Victoria Kastner, Hearst Castle's in-house custodian, has described the partnership as "a rare, true collaboration" and there are many contemporary accounts of the closeness of the relationship. Walter Steilberg, a draughtsman in Morgan's office, once observed them at dinner; "The rest of us could have been a hundred miles away; they didn't pay any attention to anybody ... these two very different people just clicked".[42] Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 history of the castle, made a similar observation: "seated opposite each other, they would discuss and review work, consider design changes, pass drawings back and forth ... seemingly oblivious of the rest of the guests".[43]

Having a ball: 1925–1938

 
Marion Davies – Hearst's lover from 1918, and chatelaine of Hearst Castle

Hearst and his family occupied Casa Grande for the first time at Christmas, 1925.[44] Thereafter, Hearst's wife, Millicent, went back to New York, and from 1926 until they left for the last time in 1947, Hearst's mistress Marion Davies acted as his chatelaine at the castle.[45] The Hollywood and political elite often visited in the 1920s and 1930s. Among Hearst's guests were Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable.[46] Churchill described his host, and Millicent Hearst and Davies, in a letter to his own wife; "a grave simple child – with no doubt a nasty temper – playing with the most costly toys ... two magnificent establishments, two charming wives, complete indifference to public opinion, oriental hospitalities".[d][49] Weekend guests were either brought by private train from Glendale Station north of Los Angeles, and then by car to the castle, or flew into Hearst's airstrip, generally arriving late on Friday evening or on Saturday.[50] Cecil Beaton wrote of his impressions during his first visit for New Year's Eve in 1931: "we caught sight of a vast, sparkling white castle in Spain. It was out of a fairy story. The sun poured down with theatrical brilliance on tons of white marble and white stone. There seemed to be a thousand statues, pedestals, urns. The flowers were unreal in their ordered profusion. Hearst stood smiling at the top of one of the many flights of garden steps".[51]

Guests were generally left to their own devices during the day. Horse-riding, shooting, swimming, golf, croquet and tennis were all available,[52] while Hearst would lead mounted parties for picnics on the estate.[53] The only absolute deadline was for cocktails in the assembly room at 7.30 on Saturday night. Alcohol was rationed; guests were not permitted to have liquor in their rooms, and were limited to one cocktail each before dinner.[54] This was due not to meanness on Hearst's part but to his concerns over Davies's alcoholism, though the rule was frequently flouted.[e] The actor David Niven later reflected on his supplying illicit alcohol to Davies; "It seemed fun at the time to stoke up her fire of outrageous fun and I got a kick out of feeling I had outwitted one of the most powerful and best informed men on earth, but what a disloyal and crummy betrayal of (him) and what a nasty potential nail to put in her coffin".[56] Dinner was served at 9.00 in the refectory.[57] Wine came from Hearst's 7,000-bottle cellar.[56] Charlie Chaplin commented on the fare; "dinners were elaborate, pheasant, wild duck, partridge and venison" but also the informality, "amidst the opulence, we were served paper napkins, it was only when Mrs Hearst was in residence that the guests were given linen ones". The informality extended to the ketchup bottles and condiments in jars which were remarked on by many guests.[f][59] Dinner was invariably followed by a movie; initially outside, and then in the theater. The actress Ilka Chase recorded a showing in the early 1930s; "the theater was not yet complete – the plaster was still wet – so an immense pile of fur coats was heaped at the door and each guest picked one up and enveloped himself before entering...Hearst and Marion, close together in the gloom and bundled in their fur coats, looked for all the world like the big and baby bears".[60] Movies were generally films from Hearst's own studio, Cosmopolitan Productions,[61] and often featured Marion Davies. Sherman Eubanks, whose father worked as an electrician at the castle, recorded in an oral history: "Mr Hearst would push a button and call up to the projectionist and say 'Put on Marion's Peg o' My Heart'. So I've seen Peg o' My Heart about fifty times. This is not being critical. I'm simply saying that's the way it was".[62] Chase noted that this repetition tended to "put a slight strain on the guests' gratitude".[63]

In 1937, Patricia Van Cleeve married at the castle, the grandest social occasion there since the visit of President and Mrs Coolidge in February 1930.[64] Ken Murray records these two events as the only occasions when formal attire was required of guests to the castle.[65] Van Cleeve, who married the actor, Arthur Lake, was always introduced as Marion Davies' favorite niece.[66] It was frequently rumored that she was in fact Davies and Hearst's daughter, something she herself acknowledged just before her death in 1993.[67][68] In February 1938, a plane crash at the San Simeon airstrip led to the deaths of Lord and Lady Plunket, who were traveling to the castle as Hearst's guests, and the pilot Tex Phillips. The only other passenger, the bobsledding champion, James Lawrence, survived.[69]

The specter at the feast: Hearst, Welles and Xanadu

Main article: Citizen Kane
 
A publicity shot for Citizen Kane

Hearst Castle was the inspiration for Xanadu, and Hearst himself the main model for Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.[70][71][72][73] Having made his name with the Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds in 1938, Welles arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to make a film version of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness for RKO Pictures.[74] That film was not made and Welles began a collaboration with the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz on a screenplay originally entitled American. The film tells the stories of Kane, a media magnate and aspiring politician, and of his second wife Susan Alexander, a failed opera singer driven to drink,[g] who inhabit a castle in Florida, filled with "paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace – a collection of everything so big it can never be cataloged or appraised; enough for ten museums; the loot of the world".[6] Filming began in June 1940 and the movie premiered on 1 June 1941.[76] Although at the time Welles, and RKO, denied that the film was based on Hearst, his long-time friend and collaborator, John Houseman was clear, "the truth is simple: for the basic concept of Charles Foster Kane and for the main lines and significant events of his public life, Mankiewicz used as his model the figure of William Randolph Hearst".[77] Told of the film's content before its release – his friends, the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons having attended early screenings – Hearst made strenuous efforts to stop the premiere. When these failed, he sought to damage the film's circulation by alternately forbidding all mention of it in his media outlets, or by using them to attack both the movie and Welles.[71] Hearst's assault damaged the film at the box office, and harmed Welles' subsequent career.[78] Since its inception in 1952 through to 2012, the Sight and Sound Critics' Poll voted Citizen Kane the greatest film of all time in every decade of polling.[h][i][79] On 9 March 2012, the film was screened in the movie theater at Hearst Castle for the first time as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.[81]

Depression, death and after: 1939–present

 
Casa Grande at night

By the late 1930s the Great Depression and Hearst's profligacy had brought him to the brink of financial ruin.[82] Debts totaled $126 million.[j][84] He was compelled to cede financial control of the Hearst Corporation, newspapers and radio stations were sold, and much of his art collection was dispersed in a series of sales, often for much less than he had paid. Hearst railed against his losses, and the perceived incompetence of the sales agents, Parish-Watson & Co.: "they greatly cheapened them and us, (he) advertises like a bargain basement sale. I am heartbroken".[85] Construction at Hearst Castle virtually ceased. After Pearl Harbor the castle was closed up and Hearst and Davies moved to Wyntoon, which was perceived to be less vulnerable to enemy attack.[86] They returned in 1945 and construction on a limited scale recommenced, finally ending in 1947.[87] In early May of that year, with his health declining, Hearst and Davies left the castle for the last time.[88] The pair settled in at 1007 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.[89] Hearst died in 1951,[k] his death abruptly severing him from Davies, who was excluded from the funeral by Hearst's family – "For thirty-two years I had him, and they leave me with his empty room".[91] In 1950 Julia Morgan closed her San Francisco office after a career of forty-two years. Ill health circumscribed her retirement and she died, a virtual recluse, in early 1957.[92]

In 1958 the Hearst Corporation donated Hearst Castle, its gardens, and many of its contents, to the state of California. A dedicatory plaque at the castle reads: "La Cuesta Encantada presented to the State of California in 1958 by the Hearst Corporation in memory of William Randolph Hearst who created this Enchanted Hill, and of his mother, Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who inspired it".[93] The castle was opened to the public for the first time in June 1958.[94] Hearst Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1972, and became a United States National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976.[2][95] Hearst was always keen to protect the mystique of his castle. In 1926, he wrote to Morgan to congratulate her after a successful party was held on the hill: "those wild movie people said it was wonderful and that the most extravagant dream of a movie picture fell far short of this reality. They all wanted to make a picture there but they are NOT going to be allowed to do this...".[96] Commercial filming at the castle is still rarely allowed; since 1957 only two projects have been granted permission. Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus used the castle to stand in as Crassus' villa,[97] and in 2014, Lady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y." was filmed at the Neptune and Roman Pools.[98]

On February 12, 1976, the Casa del Sol guesthouse was damaged by a bomb. The device was placed by allies of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), in retaliation for Patty Hearst, Hearst's granddaughter, testifying in court at her trial for armed robbery, following her kidnapping by the SLA in 1974.[99] On December 22, 2003, an earthquake occurred with its epicenter some three miles north of the castle. With a magnitude of 6.5, it was the largest earthquake recorded at San Simeon - the very limited structural damage which resulted was a testament to the quality of the castle's construction.[100] Since its opening, the castle has become a major California tourist attraction, attracting over 850,000 visitors in 2018. Recent changes to the tour arrangements now allow visitors time to explore the grounds independently, at the conclusion of the conducted tours.[101] The Hearst family maintains a connection with the castle, which was closed for a day in early August 2019 for the wedding of Amanda Hearst, Hearst's great-granddaughter.[102]

The castle closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many projects and repairs that would have been impossible to undertake with the castle open to tourists were completed during the closure.[103] The castle reopened on May 11, 2022.[104]

Architecture

 

Design

Hearst first approached Morgan with ideas for a new project in April 1919, shortly after the death of his mother had brought him into his inheritance.[105] His original idea was to build a bungalow, according to Walter Steilberg, one of Morgan's draftsmen who recalled Hearst's words from the initial meeting: "I would like to build something up on the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I'm getting a little too old for that. I'd like to get something that would be a little more comfortable".[27]

 
The Church of Santa María la Mayor, Ronda – Hearst's main inspiration

Within a month, Hearst's original ideas for a modest dwelling had greatly expanded. Discussion on the style began with consideration of "Jappo-Swisso" themes.[105] Then the Spanish Colonial Revival style was favored.[106] Morgan had used this style when she worked on Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915.[l][18] Hearst appreciated the Spanish Revival but was dissatisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California.[27] Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication, but he objected to its abundance of ornamentation. Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 study of the castle, notes the Churrigueresque influence on the design of the main block, "flat and unembellished exterior surfaces; decorative urges are particularized and isolated, focused mainly on doorways, windows (and) towers".[109] The Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approximations in California to the approach Hearst desired.[110] But his European tours, and specifically the inspiration of the Iberian Peninsula, led him to Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain that more exactly suited his tastes.[m][110] He particularly admired a church in Ronda, Spain and asked Morgan to model the Casa Grande towers after it. In a letter to Morgan dated December 31, 1919, Hearst wrote, "The San Diego Exposition is the best source of Spanish in California. The alternative is to build in the Renaissance style of southern Spain. We picked out the towers of the church at Ronda... a Renaissance decoration, particularly that of the very southern part of Spain, could harmonize well with them. I would very much like to have your views on... what style of architecture we should select."[112] This blend of Southern Spanish Renaissance, Revival and Mediterranean examples became San Simeon's defining style; "something a little different than other people are doing out in California".[112] The architectural writers Arrol Gellner and Douglas Keister describe Casa Grande as "a palatial fusion of Classicism and Mediterranean architecture... [that] transcended the Mission Revival era and instead belonged to the more archaeological Period Revival styles that gained favor after the Panama-California Exposition of 1915".[113]

Hearst Castle has a total of 42 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms,[114] 127 acres (0.5 km2)[3] of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield and, during Hearst's lifetime, the world's largest private zoo.[115] Hearst was an inveterate rethinker who would frequently order the redesign of previously agreed, and often built, structures: the Neptune Pool was rebuilt three times before he was satisfied.[116] He was aware of his propensity for changing his mind; in a letter dated 18 March 1920, he wrote to Morgan; "All little houses stunning. Please complete before I can think up any more changes".[117] As a consequence of Hearst's persistent design changes, and financial difficulties in the early and later 1930s, the complex was never finished.[87] By late summer 1919, Morgan had surveyed the site, analyzed its geology, and drawn initial plans for Casa Grande. Construction began in 1919 and continued through 1947 when Hearst left the estate for the last time.[3] During the early years of construction, until Hearst's stays at San Simeon became longer and more frequent, his approval for the ongoing design was obtained by Morgan sending him models of planned developments. By the late 1920s the main model, designed by another female architect Julian C. Mesic, had become too large to ship and Mesic and Morgan would photograph it, hand color the images, and send these to Hearst.[118]

Construction

The castle's location presented major challenges for construction. It was remote; when Morgan began coming to the estate for site visits in 1919, she would leave her San Francisco office on Friday afternoon and take an eight-hour, 200-mile train journey to San Luis Obispo, followed by a fifty-mile drive to San Simeon.[n][119] The relative isolation made recruiting and retaining a workforce a constant difficulty.[120] In the early years, the estate lacked water, its limited supplies coming from three natural springs on Pine Mountain, a 3,500 ft-high (1,100 m) peak seven miles (11 km) east of Hearst Castle.[121] The issue was addressed by the construction of three reservoirs and Morgan devised a gravity-based water delivery system that transported water from the nearby mountain springs to the reservoirs, including the main one on Rocky Butte, a 2,000 ft (610 m) knoll less than a mile southeast from Hearst Castle.[122] Water was of particular importance; as well as feeding the pools and fountains Hearst desired, it provided electricity, by way of a private hydroelectric plant, until the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation began service to the castle in 1924.[123] The climate presented a further challenge. The proximity to the coast brought strong winds in from the Pacific Ocean and the site's elevation meant that winter storms were frequent and severe.[110]

We are all leaving the hill. We are drowned, blown and frozen out … Before we build anything more let's make what we have practical, comfortable and beautiful. If we can't do that we might just as well change the names of the houses to Pneumonia House, Diphtheria House and Influenza Bungalow. The main house we can call the Clinic.

–Hearst's letter of February 1927 after a visit during a period of severe storms[124]

Water was also essential for the production of concrete, the main structural component of the houses and their ancillary buildings.[100] Morgan had substantial experience of building in steel-reinforced concrete and, together with the firm of consulting engineers Earl and Wright, experimented in finding suitable stone, eventually settling on that quarried from the mountain top on which the foundation platform for the castle was built.[100] Combining this with desalinated sand from San Simeon Bay produced concrete of exceptionally high quality.[125] Later, white sand was brought in from Carmel. Material for construction was transported either by train and truck, or by sea into a wharf built in San Simeon Bay below the site. In time, a light railway was constructed from the wharf to the castle, and Morgan built a compound of warehouses for storage and accommodation for workers by the bay.[120] Brick and tile works were also developed on site as brick was used extensively and tiling was an important element of the decoration of the castle. Morgan used several tile companies to produce her designs including Grueby Faience, Batchelder, California Faience and Solon & Schemmel.[126] Albert Solon and Frank Schemmel came to Hearst Castle to undertake tiling work and Solon's brother, Camille, was responsible for the design of the mosaics of blue-and-gold Venetian glass tile used in the Roman pool and the murals in Hearst's Gothic library.[127]

Morgan worked with a series of construction managers; Henry Washburn from 1919 to 1922,[125] then Camille Rossi from 1922, until his firing by Hearst in 1932,[o] and finally George Loorz until 1940.[129] From 1920 to 1939, there were between 25 and 150 workmen employed in construction at the castle.[130]

Costs

 
The front courtyard of Casa del Mar

The exact cost of the entire San Simeon complex is unknown.[131] Kastner makes an estimate of expenditure on construction and furnishing the complex between 1919 and 1947 as "under $10,000,000".[132] Thomas Aidala suggests a slightly more precise figure for the overall cost at between $7.2 and $8.2 million.[133] Hearst's relaxed approach to using the funds of his companies, and sometimes the companies themselves, to make personal purchases made clear accounting for expenditure almost impossible.[p] In 1927 one of his lawyers wrote, "the entire history of your corporation shows an informal method of withdrawal of funds".[96] In 1945, when the Hearst Corporation was closing the Hearst Castle account for the final time, Morgan gave a breakdown of construction costs, which did not include expenditure on antiques and furnishings. Casa Grande's build cost is given as $2,987,000 and that for the guest houses, $500,000. Other works, including nearly half a million dollars on the Neptune pool, brought the total to $4,717,000. Morgan's fees for twenty-odd years of almost continuous work, came to $70,755.[135] Her initial fee was a 6% commission on total costs. This was later increased to 8.5%. Many additional expenses, and challenges in getting prompt payment, led her to receive rather less than this. Kastner suggests that Morgan made an overall profit of $100,000 on the entire, twenty-year, project.[136] Her modest remuneration was unimportant to her. At the height of Hearst's financial travails in the late 1930s, when his debts stood at over $87 million,[83] Morgan wrote to him, "I wish you would use me in any way that relieves your mind as to the care of your belongings. There never has been nor will there be, any charge in this connection, [it is] an honor and a pleasure".[137]

Plan of the castle complex

 

Casa del Mar

Casa del Mar, the largest of the three guest houses, provided accommodation for Hearst himself until Casa Grande was ready in 1925.[138] He stayed in the house again in 1947, during his last visit to the ranch.[139] Casa del Mar contains 5,350 square feet (546 m2) of floor space.[140] Although luxuriously designed and furnished, none of the guest houses had kitchen facilities, an omission that sometimes irritated Hearst's guests. Adela Rogers St. Johns recounted her first visit: "I rang and asked the maid for coffee. With a smile, she said I would have to go up to the castle for that. I asked Marion Davies about this. She said W. R. (Hearst) did not approve of breakfast in bed".[141] Adjacent to Casa del Mar is the wellhead (Italian: Pozzo) from Phoebe Hearst's Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, which Hearst moved to San Simeon when he sold his mother's estate after her death in 1919.[142]

Casa del Monte

 
The single-story front elevation of Casa del Monte

Casa del Monte was the first of the guest houses, originally entitled simply Houses A (del Mar), B (del Monte) and C (del Sol),[110] built by Morgan on the slopes below the site of Casa Grande during 1920–1924.[143] Hearst had initially wanted to begin work with the construction of the main house but Morgan persuaded him to begin with the guest cottages because the smaller structures could be completed more quickly.[144] Each guest house faces the Esplanade and appears as a single story at its front entrance. Additional stories descend rearward down the terraced mountain side.[145] Casa del Monte has 2,550 sq ft (237 m2) of living space.[140]

Casa del Sol

 
The rear elevation of Casa del Sol. The guest houses flank Casa Grande, echoing a tented encampment, and are single-storied at the front elevations with multiple levels to the rear.

The decorative style of the Casa del Sol is Moorish, accentuated by the use of antique Persian tiles.[146] A bronze copy of Donatello's David stands atop a copy of an original Spanish fountain.[q][147] The inspiration for the fountain came from an illustration in a book, The Minor Ecclesiastical, Domestic and Garden Architecture of Southern Spain, written by Austin Whittlesey and published in 1919. Hearst sent a copy to Morgan, while retaining another for himself, and it proved a fertile source of ideas.[148] The size of the house is 3,620 square feet (242 m2).[140] Morgan's staff were responsible for the cataloguing of those parts of Hearst's art collection which were shipped to California and an oral record made in the 1980s indicates the methodology used for furnishing the buildings at San Simeon. "We would set (the object) up and then I would stand with a yardstick to give it scale. Sam Crow would take a picture. Then we would give it a number and I would write a description. These were made into albums. When Mr Hearst would write and say 'I want a Florentine mantel in Cottage C in Room B, and four yards of tiles', then we would look it up in the books and find something that would fit."[149]

Casa Grande

 
Casa Grande from the Esplanade

Construction of Casa Grande began in April 1922.[150] Work continued almost until Hearst's final departure on May 2, 1947, and even then the house was unfinished.[151] The size of Casa Grande is 68,500 square feet (5,634 m2).[140] The main western facade is four stories, the entrance front, inspired by a gateway in Seville,[152] is flanked by twin bell towers modeled on the tower of the church of Santa Maria la Mayor.[112] The layout of the main house was originally to a T-plan, with the assembly room to the front, and the refectory at a right angle to its center.[r][155] The subsequent extensions of the North and South wings modified the original design. As elsewhere, the core construction material is concrete, though the façade is faced in stone.[156] In October 1927 Morgan wrote to Arthur Byne; "We finally took the bull by the horns and are facing the entire main building with a Manti stone from Utah". Morgan assured Hearst that it would be "the making of the building".[157] A cast-stone balcony fronts the second floor, and another in cast-iron the third. Above this is a large wooden overhang or gable. This was constructed in Siamese teak, originally intended to outfit a ship, which Morgan located in San Francisco. The carving was undertaken by her senior carver Jules Suppo.[116] Sara Holmes Boutelle suggests Morgan may have been inspired by a somewhat similar example at the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Arizona.[158] The façade terminates with the bell towers, comprising the Celestial suites, the carillon towers and two cupolas.[159]

The curator Victoria Kastner notes a particular feature of Casa Grande, the absence of any grand staircases. Access to the upper floors is either by elevators or stairwells in the corner turrets of the building.[153] Many of the stairwells are undecorated and the plain, poured concrete contrasts with the richness of the decoration elsewhere.[160] The terrace in front of the entrance, named Central Plaza,[161] has a quatrefoil pond at its center, with a statue of Galatea on a Dolphin.[162] The statue was inherited, having been bought by Phoebe Hearst when her son was temporarily short of money.[163] The doorway from the Central Plaza into Casa Grande illustrates Morgan and Hearst's relaxed approach to combining genuine antiques with modern reproductions to achieve the effects they both desired. A 16th-century iron gate from Spain is topped by a fanlight grille, constructed in a matching style in the 1920s by Ed Trinkeller, the castle's main ironmonger.[s][165]

The castle made use of the latest technology. Casa Grande was wired with an early sound system, allowing guests to make music selections which were played from a Capehart phonograph located in the basement, and piped into rooms in the house through a system of speakers. Alternatively, six radio stations were available.[166] The entire estate was also equipped with 80 telephones, operated through a PBX switchboard,[167] which was staffed 24 hours a day, and ran under the exclusive exchange 'Hacienda'. Fortune recorded an example of Hearst's delighting in the ubiquitous access the system provided - "(a guest) fell to wondering how a ball game came out while seated by a campfire with Mr Hearst, a day's ride from the castle. 'I'll tell you' volunteers Mr Hearst and, fumbling with the rock against which he was leaning, pulls from there a telephone, asks for New York, and relieves his guest's curiosity".[168]

Assembly room

 
The assembly room

The assembly room is the main reception room of the castle, described by Taylor Coffman, in his 1985 study, Hearst Castle: The Story of William Randolph Hearst and San Simeon, as "one of San Simeon's most magnificent interiors".[138] The fireplace, originally from a Burgundian chateau in Jours-lès-Baigneux, is named the Great Barney Mantel, after a previous owner, Charles T. Barney, from whose estate Hearst bought it after Barney's suicide.[169] The mantel had been acquired for Barney by society architect Stanford White and Kastner notes the major influence of White's style on a number of rooms at Hearst Castle, in particular the assembly room and the main sitting room in Casa del Mar.[170] The ceiling is from an Italian palazzo. A concealed door in the paneling next to the fireplace allowed Hearst to surprise his guests by entering unannounced.[61] The door opened off an elevator which connected with his Gothic suite on the third floor.[171] The assembly room, completed in 1926,[172] is nearly 2,500 square feet in extent and was described by the writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans as looking like "half of Grand Central station".[173]

The room held some of Hearst's best tapestries.[174] These include four from a set celebrating the Roman general Scipio Africanus, designed by Giulio Romano, and two copied from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting The Triumph of Religion.[175] The need to fit the tapestries above the paneling and below the roof required the installation of the unusually low windows. The room has the only piece of Art Nouveau decorative art in the castle, the Orchid Vase lamp, made by Tiffany for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1889. Bought by Phoebe Hearst, who had the original vase converted to a lamp, Hearst placed it in the assembly room in tribute to his mother.[176]

Refectory

 
The refectory

The refectory was the only dining room in the castle, and was built between 1926 and 1927.[172] The choir stalls which line the walls are from the La Seu d'Urgell Cathedral in Catalonia[177] and the silk flags mounted on the walls are Palio banners from Siena.[t][179] Hearst originally intended a "vaulted Moorish ceiling" for the room but, finding nothing suitable, he and Morgan settled on the Italian Renaissance example, dating from around 1600, which Hearst purchased from a dealer in Rome in 1924.[180] Victoria Kastner considered that the flat roof, with life-size carvings of saints, "strikes a discordant note of horizontality among the vertical lines of the room".[181] The style of the whole is Gothic, in contrast to the Renaissance approach adopted in the preceding assembly room.[159] The refectory is said to have been Morgan's favorite interior within the castle.[182] The design of both the refectory and the assembly room was greatly influenced by the monumental architectural elements, especially the fireplaces and the choir stalls used as wainscoting, and works of art, particularly the tapestries, which Hearst determined would be incorporated into the rooms.[183] The central table provided seating for 22 in its usual arrangement of two tables, which could be extended to three or four, on the occasion of larger gatherings.[184] The tables were sourced from an Italian monastery[185] and were the setting for some of the best pieces from Hearst's collection of silverware. One of the finest is a wine cooler dating from the early 18th century and weighing 14.2 kg by the Anglo-French silversmith David Willaume.[186]

Library

 
The library, with some of Hearst's collection of ancient Greek vases on the bookshelves

The library is on the second floor, directly above the assembly room.[187] The ceiling is 16th century Spanish, and a remnant is used in the library's lobby.[160] It comprises three separate ceilings, from different rooms in the same Spanish house, which Morgan combined into one.[188] The fireplace is the largest Italian example in the castle. Carved from limestone, it is attributed to the medieval sculptor and architect Benedetto da Maiano.[189] The room contains a collection of over 5,000 books, with another 3,700 in Hearst's study above.[190] The majority of the library collections were sold at sales at Parke-Bernet at 1939 and Gimbels in 1941. The sales saw the disposal of some of the best items, including sets, often signed, of first editions by Charles Dickens, Hearst's favorite author.[190] The library is also the location for much of Hearst's important holding of antique Greek vases.[191]

Cloisters and the Doge's Suite

The cloisters form a grouping of four bedrooms above the refectory and, along with the doge's suite above the breakfast room, were completed in 1925–1926.[192] The doge's suite was occupied by Millicent Hearst on her rare visits to the castle.[193] The room is lined with blue silk and has a Dutch painted ceiling, in addition to two more of Spanish origin, which was once the property of architect Stanford White.[194] Morgan also incorporated an original Venetian loggia in the suite, refashioned as a balcony.[194] The suite leads on to Morgan's inventive North and South Duplex apartments, with sitting areas and bathrooms at entry level and bedrooms on mezzanine floors above.[195]

Gothic suite

 
The gothic library, with Orrin Peck's portrait of Hearst on the far wall

The gothic suite was Hearst's private apartment on the third floor.[196] He moved there in 1927. It comprises the gothic study or library and Hearst's own gothic bedroom and private sitting room.[196] The ceiling of the bedroom is one of the best Hearst bought; Spanish, of the 14th century, it was discovered by his Iberian agent Arthur Byne who also located the original frieze panels which had been detached and sold some time before.[u][198] The whole was installed at the castle in 1924.[199] The space originally allocated for the study was too low to create the impression desired by Morgan and Hearst, a difficulty Morgan surmounted by raising the roof and supporting the ceiling with concrete trusses. These, and the walls, were painted with frescoes by Camille Solon. Light was provided by two ranges of clerestory windows.[200] The necessity of raising the roof to incorporate the study occasioned one of the few instances where Hearst hesitated, "I telegraphed you my fear of the cost...I imagine it would be ghastly", and Morgan urged further changes and expense. The result vindicated Morgan.[196] The study, completed in 1931, is dominated by a portrait of Hearst at age 31, painted by his life-long friend, Orrin Peck.[201]

Celestial suites

The celestial bedrooms, with a connecting, shared, sitting room, were created between 1924 and 1926.[202] The bell towers were raised to improve the proportions of the building, and the suites constructed in the spaces created below. The relatively cramped spaces allowed no room for storage, and en-suite bathrooms were "awkwardly squeezed" into lower landings. Ludwig Bemelmans, a guest in the 1930s, recalled; "there was no place to hang your clothes, so I hung mine on wire coat hangers that a former tenant had left hanging on the arms of two six-armed gold candelabra, the rest I put on the floor".[203] The sitting room contains one of the most important paintings in Hearst's collection, Bonaparte Before the Sphinx (1868) by Jean-Léon Gérôme.[204] The suites are linked externally by a walkway, the celestial bridge, which is decorated with elaborate tiling.[205]

North and South wings

 
The billiard room with part of the millefleur tapestry to the right.

The north, or billiard, and the south, or service, wings complete the castle and were begun in 1929.[194] The north wing houses the billiard room on the first floor, which was converted from the original breakfast room. It has a Spanish antique ceiling and a French fireplace[194] and contains the oldest tapestry in the castle, a Millefleur hunting scene woven in Flanders in the 15th century.[206] The spandrel over the doorcase is decorated with a frieze of 16th century Persian tiles depicting a battle.[207] The 34 tiles originate from Isfahan and were purchased by Hearst at the Kevorkian sale in New York in 1922.[208] The theater, which leads off the billiard room, was used both for amateur theatricals and the showing of movies from Hearst's Cosmopolitan Studios.[194] The theater accommodated fifty guests and had an electric keyboard that enabled the bells in the carillon towers to be played. The walls are decorated in red damask, which originally hung in the assembly room, and feature gilded caryatids.[209]

The upper stories of the north wing were the last to be worked upon and were never completed. Activity recommenced in 1945 and Morgan delegated the work to her assistant, Warren McClure. Many of the rooms are unfinished but Aidala considers that the bathrooms in the wing represent "first-rate examples of streamline design.[210] The service wing contains the kitchen.[211] The hotel-scale units and worktops are constructed in Monel Metal, an expensive form of nickel alloy invented in 1901.[212] The wing contains further bedroom suites, a staff dining room and gives entry to the 9,000-square-foot basement which contained a wine cellar, pantries, the boiler plant which heated the main house, and a barber/hairdressing parlour, for the use of Hearst's guests.[213]

Planned but uncompleted elements

Hearst and Morgan intended a large ballroom or cloister to connect the North and South wings at the rear of Casa Grande and unify the whole composition but it was never undertaken.[214] In 1932, Hearst contemplated incorporating the reja (grille) he had acquired from Valladolid Cathedral in 1929 into this room.[96] He described his vision in a letter to Morgan dated that year; "A great ballroom and banqueting hall, that is the scheme! Isn't it a pippin." The letter was signed "Sincerely, Your Assistant Architect".[215] Other structures that did not develop beyond drawings and plans included two more guest houses, in English and Chinese architectural styles.[v][172]

Collections

Why didn't you buy Ansiglioni's Galatea. It is superb...I have a great notion to buy it myself, the one thing that prevents me is a scarcity of funds. The man wants eight thousand dollars for the blooming thing. I have the art fever terribly. Queer, isn't it? I never miss a gallery and I go and nosey about the pictures and statuary and wish they were mine.

– Hearst's letter of 1889 to his mother after a visit to Ansiglioni's workshop[163]

Hearst was a voracious collector of art,[217] with the stated intention of making the castle "a museum of the best things that I can secure".[7] The dealer Joseph Duveen, from whom Hearst bought despite their mutual dislike, called him the "Great Accumulator".[218] His robust approach to buying, particularly the purchase and removal of entire historic structures, generated considerable ill-feeling and sometimes outright opposition.[219] His deconstruction and removal of the 14th century Bradenstoke Priory in England led the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to organize a campaign which used language so violent that its posters had to be pasted over for fear of a libel suit.[w][222] Hearst sometimes encountered similar opposition elsewhere. In 1919 he was writing to Morgan about; "the patio from Bergos (sic) which, by the way, I own but cannot get out of Spain".[26] The dismantling of a monastery in Sacramenia, which Hearst bought in its entirety in the 1920s, saw his workmen attacked by enraged villagers.[223] Hearst's tardiness in paying his bills was another less attractive feature of his purchasing approach; in 1925 Morgan was obliged to write to Arthur Byne, "Mr. Hearst accepts your dictum – cash or nothing".[x][197]

Some of the finest pieces from the collections of books and manuscripts, tapestries, paintings, antiquities and sculpture, amounting to about half of Hearst's total art holdings,[225] were sold in sales in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Hearst's publishing empire was facing financial collapse, but a great deal remains.[226] His art buying had started when he was young and, in his tested fashion, he established a company, the International Studio Arts Corporation, as a vehicle for purchasing works and as a means of dealing with their export and import.[117] The curator Mary Levkoff divides the collection into four parts, the antiquities, the sculptures, the tapestries and the paintings, of which she considers the last of least significance.[227] In 1975, the Hearst Corporation donated the archive of Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses, the gathering point for almost all of his European acquisitions before their dispersal to his many homes, to Long Island University. As of 2015, the university has embarked on a digitization project which will ultimately see the 125 albums of records, and sundry other materials, made available online.[228]

Antiquities

 
A Greek rhyton

The ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities are the oldest works in Hearst's collection. The oldest of all are the stone figures of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet which stand on the South Esplanade below Casa Grande and date from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, approximately 1550 to 1189 BC.[229] Morgan designed the pool setting for the pieces, with tiling inspired by ancient Egyptian motifs.[230] In the courtyard of Casa del Monte is one of a total of nine Roman sarcophagi collected by Hearst, dated to 230 AD and previously held at the Palazzo Barberini, which was acquired at the Charles T. Yerkes sale in 1910.[208] The most important element of the antiquities collection is the holding of Greek vases, on display in the second-floor library.[231] Although some 65 vases were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after Hearst's death,[232] those which remain at the castle still form one of the world's largest groups.[y][233] Hearst began collecting vases in 1901, and his collection was moved from his New York homes to the castle in 1935. At its peak, the collection numbered over 400 pieces. The vases were placed on the tops of the bookshelves in the library, each carefully wired in place to guard against vibrations from earthquakes.[234] At the time of Hearst's collecting, many of the vases were believed to be of Etruscan manufacture, but later scholars ascribe all of them to Greece.[234]

Sculptures

 
Three Graces – copy of an original by Canova

Hearst often bought multiple lots from sales of major collections; in 1930 he purchased five antique Roman statues from the Lansdowne sale in London. Four are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and one in the Metropolitan.[96] He collected bronzes as well as marble figures; a cast of a stone original of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini, dating from around 1617, stands in the Doge's suite.[235]

In addition to his classical sculptures, Hearst was content to acquire 19th century versions, or contemporary copies of ancient works; "if we cannot find the right thing in a classic statue we can find a modern one".[96] He was a particular patron of Charles Cassou and also favored the early 19th century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen whose Venus Victorious remains at the castle.[96] Both this, and the genuinely classical Athena from the collection of Thomas Hope, were displayed in the Assembly room, along with the Venus Italica by Antonio Canova.[236] Other works by Thorvaldsen include the four large marble medallions in the Assembly room depicting society's virtues.[169] Two 19th century marbles are in the anteroom to the Assembly room, Bacchante, by Frederick William MacMonnies, a copy of his bronze original and Pygmalion and Galatea by Gérôme.[237] A monumental statue of Galatea, attributed to Leopoldo Ansiglioni and dating from around 1882, stands in the center of the pool on the plaza in front of Casa Grande.[238]

Textiles

 
The millefleur tapestry in the billiard room

Tapestries include the Scipio set after Giulio Romano[239] in the assembly room,[240] two from a set telling the Biblical story of Daniel in the morning room, and the millefleur hunting scene in the Billiard room.[241] The last is particularly rare, one of only "a handful from this period in the world".[239] Hearst also assembled and displayed an important collection of Navajo textiles at San Simeon, including blankets, rugs and serapes. Most were purchased from Herman Schweizer, who ran the Indian Department of the Fred Harvey Company. Originally gathered at Hearst's hacienda at Jolon, they were moved to Wyntoon in 1940 before being brought to San Simeon[242] and finally being donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1942.[243] Hearst was always interested in pieces that had historical and cultural connections to the history of California and Central and Latin America; the North Wing contains two Peruvian armorial banners. Dating from the 1580s, they show the shields of Don Luis Jerónimo Fernández Cabrera y Bobadilla, Count of Chinchón and viceroy of Peru.[244] Nathaniel Burt, the composer and critic evaluated the collections at San Simeon thus; "Far from being the mere kitsch that most easterners have been led to believe, [San Simeon is] full of real beauties and treasures".[245]

Paintings

 
Gérôme's Bonaparte Before the Sphinx, which hangs in the sitting room of the celestial suite

The art collection includes works by Tintoretto, whose portrait of Alvisius Vendramin hangs in the Doge's suite,[246] Franz Xaver Winterhalter who carried out the double portraits of Maximilian I of Mexico and his empress Carlota, located in Casa del Mar[247] and two portraits of Napoléon by Jean-Léon Gérôme.[248] Hearst's earliest painting, a Madonna and Child from the school of Duccio di Buoninsegna, dates from the early 14th century.[239] A gift from his friend, the editor Cissy Patterson, the painting hangs in Hearst's bedroom.[239] Portrait of a Woman, by Giulio Campi, hangs in a bedroom in the north wing.[249] In 1928 Hearst acquired the Madonna and Child with Two Angels, by Adriaen Isenbrandt. The curator Taylor Coffman describes this work, which hangs in the Casa del Mar sitting room,[250] as perhaps "San Simeon's finest painting".[z][252] In 2018, a previously unattributed Annunciation in the assembly room was identified as a work of 1690 by Bartolomé Pérez.[253][254]

Gardens and grounds

 
View from the esplanade at the North Lower Terrace

The Esplanade, a curving, paved walkway, connects the main house with the guest cottages; Hearst described it as giving "a finished touch to the big house, to frame it in, as it were".[255] Morgan designed the pedestrianized pavement with great care, to create a coup de théâtre for guests, desiring "a strikingly noble and saississant effect be impressed upon everyone on arrival". Hearst concurred: "Heartily approve. I certainly want that saississant effect. I don't know what it is but I think we ought to have at least one such on the premises".[256] A feature of the gardens are the lampposts topped with alabaster globes; modeled on "janiform hermae", the concept was Hearst's.[aa][172] The Swan lamps, remodeled with alabaster globe lights to match the hermae, were designed by Morgan's chief draftsman, Thaddeus Joy.[257] Others whose ideas and approach influenced Hearst and Morgan in their landscaping include Charles Adams Platt, an artist and gardener who had made a particular study of the layout and planting of Italian villas;[258] Nigel Keep, Hearst's orchardman, who worked at San Simeon from 1922 to 1947,[259] and Albert Webb, Hearst's English head gardener who was at the hill during 1922–1948.[260]

Neptune Pool

Main article: Neptune Pool
 
The Neptune pool

The Neptune pool, described by Ginger Wadsworth in her biography of Morgan as "the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth",[5] is located near the edge of the hilltop and is enclosed by a retaining wall and underpinned by a framework of concrete struts to allow for movement in the event of earthquakes. The pool is often cited as an example of Hearst's changeability; it was reconstructed three times before he was finally satisfied.[261] Originally begun as an ornamental pond, it was first expanded in 1924 as Millicent Hearst desired a swimming pool. It was enlarged again during 1926–1928 to accommodate Cassou's statuary. Finally, in 1934, it was extended again to act as a setting for a Roman temple, in part original and in part comprising elements from other structures which Hearst transported from Europe and had reconstructed at the site.[261] The tiling was undertaken by Solon and Schemmel.[126]

The pool holds 345,000 gallons of water and is equipped with seventeen shower and changing rooms. It was heated by oil-fired burners.[262] In early 2014, the pool was drained due to drought conditions and leakage.[263] After a long-term restoration project to fix the leaking, the pool was refilled in August 2018.[264][265] The restoration of the pool was recognized with a Preservation Design Award for Craftsmanship from the California Preservation Foundation in 2019.[266] The pool is well-supplied with sculpture, particularly works by Charles Cassou. His centerpiece, opposite the Roman temple, is The Birth of Venus.[267] An even larger sculptural grouping, depicting Neptune in a chariot drawn by four horses, was commissioned to fill the empty basin above the Venus. Although carved, it was never installed.[ab][269]

Roman Pool

 
The Roman pool

The Roman pool, constructed under the tennis courts, provided an indoor alternative to the Neptune pool. Originally mooted by Hearst in 1927, construction did not begin until 1930 and the pool was not completed until 1935.[270] Hearst initially wanted the pool to be fed by salt-water[216] but the design challenges proved to be insuperable. A disastrous attempt to fulfill Hearst's desires by pouring 20 tons of washed rock salt into the pool saw the disintegration of the cast-iron heat exchanger and pump.[ac][271] Inspiration for the mosaic decoration came from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna.[150] The tiles are of Murano glass, with gold-leaf, and were designed by Solon and manufactured in San Francisco.[272] Although a pool of "spectacular beauty", it was little used being located in a less-visited part of the complex.[273]

Pergola and zoo

Two other major features of the grounds were the pergola and the zoo. The pergola, an ornamental bridleway, runs to the west of Casa Grande.[274] Comprising concrete columns, covered in espaliered fruit trees, Morgan ensured that it was built to a height sufficient to allow Hearst, "a tall man with a tall hat on a tall horse",[275] to ride unimpeded down its mile-long length.[274] Plans for a zoo, to house Hearst's large collection of wild animals, were drawn up by Morgan and included an elephant house and separate enclosures for antelopes, camels, zebras and bears. This was never constructed, but a range of shelters and pits were built,[276] sited on Orchard Hill.[277]

Estate

 
Sunset at San Simeon Bay

Hearst Castle is located near the town of San Simeon, California, approximately 250 mi (400 km) from both Los Angeles and San Francisco, and 43 mi (69 km) from San Luis Obispo at the northern end of San Luis Obispo County.[278] The estate itself is five miles (eight km) inland atop a hill of the Santa Lucia Range at an altitude of 1,600 ft (490 m). The region is sparsely populated because the Santa Lucia Range abuts the Pacific Ocean, which provides dramatic vistas but offers few opportunities for development and hampers transportation. The surrounding countryside remains largely undeveloped. The castle's entrance is approximately five miles north of Hearst San Simeon State Park.[279]

At the height of Hearst's ownership, the estate totaled more than 250,000 acres.[280] W. C. Fields commented on the extent of the estate while on a visit; "Wonderful place to bring up children. You can send them out to play. They won't come back till they're grown".[281] The gardens and terraces immediately surrounding the castle total roughly 22 acres (88305 sqm), [see plan]. Some 23 miles to the north of the castle, Morgan constructed the Milpitas Hacienda, a ranchhouse that acted as a trianon to the main estate, and as a focus for riding expeditions.[282] In 1957, the castle and its contents, with 120 acres of the gardens, were transferred to the guardianship of the California State Parks Department.[16] In 2005, the wider setting for the castle was protected by a conservation arrangement between the Department, American Land Conservancy and the Hearst Corporation which aimed to preserve the undeveloped character of the coast. Years earlier, the writer Henry Miller had described the Big Sur area as "the California that men dreamed of ... the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look".[16] Miller's comment echoes an earlier observation on San Simeon made by Bernard Shaw; "This is what God would have built if he had had the money".[ad][8] The agreement reached between the state and the family has not been without controversy. The deal, which saw the Hearst family receive $80 million in cash together with $15 million in state tax credits in exchange for ceding development rights on the majority of the estate, has been criticized as being too generous to the Hearsts, and for restricting public access to the estate.[285] The deal's sponsors disagreed, Mike Chrisman, California's then Secretary for Resources, describing the agreement as "a landmark effort ... and a big deal for the state, for Hearst Corp. and the family and the public".[286]

Appreciation

 
The sitting room in the Doge's Suite

As with Hearst himself, Hearst Castle and its collections have been the subject of considerable criticism. From the 1940s the view of Hearst and Morgan's most important joint creation as the phantasmagorical Xanadu of Orson Welles's imagination has been commonplace.[287][288] Although some literary depictions were gently mocking; P. G. Wodehouse's novel of 1953, Ring for Jeeves, published in America in 1954 as The Return of Jeeves, has a character describe her stay, "I remember visiting at San Simeon once, and there was a whole French Abbey lying on the grass";[ae][290] others were not. John Steinbeck's unnamed description was certainly of Hearst; "They's a fella, newspaper fella near the coast, got a million acres. Fat, sof' fella with little mean eyes an' a mouth like a ass-hole".[291] The writer John Dos Passos went further, explicitly referencing Hearst in the third volume of his 1938 U.S.A trilogy. "The emperor of newsprint retired to his fief of San Simeon where he built an Andalusian palace and there spends his last years amid the relaxing adulations of screenstars, admen, screenwriters, publicity-men, columnists, Until he dies, a spent Caesar grown old with spending."[292] The English architectural writer Clive Aslet was little more complimentary about the castle. Disliking its "unsympathetic texture (of) poured concrete", he described it as "best seen from a distance".[106] The unfinished, and unresolved, rear façade of Casa Grande has been the subject of particular negative comment; Carleton Winslow and Nicola Frye, in their history from 1980, suggest the flanking north and south wings "compete rather disastrously" with the central doge's suite block.[293] Others questioned the castle's very existence; the architect Witold Rybczynski asking, "what is this Italian villa doing on the Californian Coastal Range? ... a costly piece of theatrical décor that ignores its context (and) lacks meaning".[294] Hearst's collections were similarly disparaged, the art historian William George Constable echoed Joseph Duveen when he assessed Hearst as "not a collector but a gigantic and voracious magpie".[295]

Later decades after Hearst's death have seen a more sympathetic and appreciative evaluation of his collections, and the estate he and Morgan created to house them. The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Hoving, although listing Hearst only at number 83 in his evaluation of America's top 101 art collectors, wrote, "Hearst is being reevaluated. He may have been much more of a collector than was thought at the time of his death".[296] The curator Mary Levkoff, in her 2008 study, Hearst the Collector, contends that he was, describing the four separate "staggeringly important" collections of antique vases, tapestries, armor and silver which Hearst brought together,[af][298] and writing of the challenge of bringing their artistic merit to light from under the shadow of his own reputation.[ag][300] Of Morgan's building, its stock has risen with the re-evaluation of her standing and accomplishments, which saw her inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008,[301] become the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2014,[ah][303] and to have an obituary in The New York Times as recently as 2019.[ai][307] The writer John Julius Norwich recorded his personal recantation after a visit to the castle; "I went prepared to mock; I remained to marvel. Hearst Castle (is) a palace in every sense of the word".[308] Victoria Kastner, for many years the in-house historian of Hearst Castle and author of a number of books on its design and history, concludes her history of the castle with an assessment of San Simeon as "the quintessential twentieth-century American country house".[309]

See also

Footnotes and references

Footnotes

  1. ^ Mary Levkoff suggests that the initial discussion regarding San Simeon took place just before Phoebe Hearst's death, in late March or early April 1919.[26]
  2. ^ Mark Alan Hewitt, in his study, The Architect & the American Country House: 1890-1940, estimates that Morgan designed some seven hundred buildings over the course of her career.[33]
  3. ^ From 2019 the Kennedy Library has been undertaking digitalization of the Morgan/Hearst correspondence with the results to be made available online.[40]
  4. ^ During his visit to San Simeon in September 1929, Churchill encountered William Van Antwerp, an anglophile stockbroker and book collector.[47] Sensing an opportunity, Churchill immediately opened an account with Van Antwerp's brokerage. His timing was unfortunate: within a month, the Wall Street Crash saw his American losses exceed $75,000.[48]
  5. ^ The limitation of the serving of alcohol at the castle irritated some guests. Eddie Sutherland, the film director and husband of Louise Brooks, left after three days, "I'll be dammed if I'll be rousted out of the hay by a cowbell at eight o'clock every morning for breakfast, and have my liquor rationed as if I was some silly schoolboy".[55]
  6. ^ Ken Murray, in his history, The Golden Days of San Simeon, reproduces the menu card for 4 July 1946, the last full year of Hearst's residence at the castle. Listing the times for meals as "Breakfast 9:00 to 12:00, Luncheon 2:00 (and) Dinner 9:00", for the evening meal guests were to be served: "Fried olympic oysters, roast partridge, gravy, bread sauce, artichokes hollandaise, cake and cherry ice cream". The card also records the evening movie, The Perfect Marriage with David Niven and Loretta Young, showing at the castle some seven months before its official release.[58]
  7. ^ Kastner suggests that Welles's portrayal of Susan Foster Kane, modelled on Davies, as a "pitiful drunkard" was the element of the film that most angered Hearst.[75]
  8. ^ In 2012 it was beaten by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.[79]
  9. ^ Orson Welles' ashes were interred on a farm outside Ronda belonging to his longtime friend, the matador Antonio Ordóñez[80]
  10. ^ Victoria Kastner suggests the lower, but still enormous, figure of $87 million dollars.[83]
  11. ^ The pallbearers for Hearst's coffin included Herbert Hoover, Earl Warren, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Baruch and Louis B. Mayer.[90]
  12. ^ In his study, The Spanish Style House, which is jointly dedicated to Julia Morgan and Paul Revere Williams,[107] Ruben G. Mendoza suggests that Morgan's most successful designs drew on the Mission and Moorish, as well as the Spanish Colonial Revival styles.[108]
  13. ^ In their study Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles, Polyzoides, Sherwood and Tice trace the influence of Spanish, and particularly Andalusian, architectural styles in California back to Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra, published in 1832.[111]
  14. ^ Between 1919 and 1939 Morgan made the journey a total of 558 times.[119]
  15. ^ Rossi, whose involvement in both the construction and the design of the complex was considerable, had an abrasive personality and by 1932 had exhausted the patience of both Hearst and Morgan.[128]
  16. ^ As an example, St Donat's Castle was purchased not by Hearst but by his National Magazine Company.[134]
  17. ^ Ken Murray, the home movie maker who chronicled San Simeon at its social apogee, incorrectly identifies the fountain as an Italian original.[146]
  18. ^ The "somewhat unusual" T-plan was dictated in part by the presence of two old oaks on the site which, as Hearst was unwilling to uproot them, led Morgan to fit the main structure around them.[153] Later, the castle workforce would develop considerable skill in relocating large oak trees by tunneling under them, encasing them in reinforced concrete and moving them on rollers to their desired new locations.[154]
  19. ^ In a letter to Hearst dated June 3rd 1927, Morgan wrote of the 'wormers', carpenters who artificially aged new work; "the Gothic Sitting Room ceiling is in. It took some real good nature on the part of the 'wormers' to match up new with old work".[164]
  20. ^ The banners now hanging in the refectory are copies, the originals having proved too fragile to allow for their permanent display.[178]
  21. ^ Byne was Hearst's single most successful supplier of Spanish antiques and architectural pieces. Of the thirty antique ceilings incorporated into buildings on the estate, Byne sourced more than any other single supplier.[197]
  22. ^ A plan, elaborate even by Hearst's standards, for a winter garden on the hill, to be a "combination orchid-greenhouse and indoor pool – with plate-glass partition for sharks", never materialized.[216]
  23. ^ Hearst's biographer David Nasaw refers to elements of the priory being discovered in crates in a Hearst Corporation warehouse in Los Angeles in 1960. These were subsequently sold to a hotelier in San Luis Obispo[220] whose son was, as of 2018, planning to reconstruct them.[221]
  24. ^ Social upheaval in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s, which led eventually to the outbreak of civil war, made buying and removing artifacts problematic but also offered opportunities. In October 1923 Byne wrote to Hearst, "with a threatened revolution, I found the owner in a much more reasonable mood; in fact rather anxious to sell".[224]
  25. ^ One of the oldest examples is the Baring Amphora, dating from 740BC and purchased by Hearst at the Revelstone sale in London in 1935.[208]
  26. ^ The Hearst Castle curator, Victoria Kastner, suggests this work may be by Ambrosius Benson. Both Isenbrandt and Benson were strongly influenced by the Flemish master Gerard David and both worked in Bruges in the early 16th century.[251]
  27. ^ In September 1927 Hearst wrote to Morgan; "take those caryatids from one of the Roman villas, where they are holding some kind of cup or globe on top of their heads, and make some kind of cast-stone models out of these and put lights in place of the vase".[20]
  28. ^ The grouping, completed by Cassou in the late 1930s, was not shipped to America until after Hearst's death due to post-war import restrictions. In 1956, the group was purchased by the Forest Lawn Memorial Park but was destroyed in a pier explosion at Brooklyn docks. Three other statues completed by Cassou at the same time as the Neptune, and depicting Diana and other mythological figures, ultimately made their way to Forest Lawn.[268]
  29. ^ Alex Rankin, a plumber working on the pool, recalled the incident in an Oral History Project undertaken by Hearst Castle in 1986. "Mr Hearst gave Mr Willicombe, his secretary an order; 'Put salt in the water'. I said, 'You can't put salt into this pool, the pipes are not designed for it'. He said, 'Mr Hearst wants salt water in the pool'. About a week later I see a big truck loaded right to the top with rock salt to put in the pool. The heater exchanger, where the copper tubes and steel comes together, it ate it all out. The pump broke and inside the cast iron was like cheese. You could cut it with a knife."[271]
  30. ^ The quote has also been recorded as Shaw's comment on St Donat's Castle, Hearst's genuine medieval castle in Wales.[283] It has also been attributed to other people, among them Alexander Wolcott and George S. Kaufman, and to other places.[284]
  31. ^ Wodehouse also recorded his impressions of his host. "There are two kinds of elderly American. One is mateyness itself. The other broods. It says little. Every now and then you catch its eye, and it is like colliding with a raw oyster. Mine host belongs to the latter class".[289]
  32. ^ Hearst's collections of armor, assembled at sales during the 1920s and 1930s, were mainly housed at the armory he built at his penthouse in the Clarendon Building in New York, or at St Donat's Castle, and are not described here.[297]
  33. ^ Ms Levkoff, previously the Director of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art was appointed Museum Director at Hearst Castle in 2014.[299]
  34. ^ Morgan's nomination was supported by Dianne Feinstein, Maria Shriver, Michael Graves, Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry.[302]
  35. ^ Morgan shunned publicity, disliked being photographed particularly after an operation on her ear in 1932 left her face somewhat disfigured,[304] and did not give press interviews, enter architectural competitions, or write articles publicizing her work. Dismissing these activities as suitable only for "talking architects"[305] she wrote, "my buildings will be my legacy ... they will speak for me long after I'm gone".[306]

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Sources

Further reading

  • Julia Morgan's Nomination for the 2014 AIA Gold Medal
  • Lewis, O. (1958). Fabulous San Simeon; a history of the Hearst Castle, a Calif. state monument located on the scenic coast of Calif., together with a guide to the treasures on display. San Francisco: California Historical Society.
  • Boulian, D. M. (1972). Enchanted gardens of Hearst Castle. Cambria, Calif: Phildor Press.
  • Martin, C. (1977). Hearst Castle: mythology, legend, history in art. Cambria, Calif: Galatea Publications.
  • Morgan, J., Hearst, W. R., & Loe, N. E. (1987). San Simeon revisited: the correspondence between architect Julia Morgan and William Randolph Hearst. San Luis Obispo, Calif: Library Associates, California Polytechnic State University.
  • Blades, J., Nargizian, R. A., & Carr, G. (1993). The Hearst Castle collection of carpets: fine rug reproductions. Santa Barbara, Calif: Jane Freeburg.
  • Kastner, V. (1994). Remains to be seen: remains of Spanish ceilings at Hearst Castle. San Simeon, CA: Hearst San Simeon State Historic Monument.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hearst Castle.
  • Official website

April 03, 2023
hearst, castle, confused, with, hurst, castle, henry, viii, device, fort, near, lymington, england, known, formally, cuesta, encantada, spanish, enchanted, hill, historic, estate, simeon, located, central, coast, california, conceived, william, randolph, hears. Not to be confused with Hurst Castle Henry VIII s Device Fort near Lymington in England Hearst Castle known formally as La Cuesta Encantada Spanish for The Enchanted Hill is a historic estate in San Simeon located on the Central Coast of California Conceived by William Randolph Hearst the publishing tycoon and his architect Julia Morgan the castle was built between 1919 and 1947 Today Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark Hearst CastleLa Cuesta EncantadaU S National Register of Historic PlacesU S National Historic LandmarkCalifornia Historical Landmark No 640 2 Casa Grande inspired by the Church of Santa Maria la Mayor Ronda Spain forms the centerpiece of Hearst s estate Show map of CaliforniaShow map of the United StatesNearest citySan Simeon California United StatesCoordinates35 41 07 N 121 10 04 W 35 68528 N 121 16778 W 35 68528 121 16778 Coordinates 35 41 07 N 121 10 04 W 35 68528 N 121 16778 W 35 68528 121 16778AreaMore than 90 000 sq ft 8 400 m2 Built1919 1947 3 ArchitectJulia MorganArchitectural styleSpanish Colonial Revival Mediterranean Revival other late 19th and 20th century revival stylesWebsitewww wbr hearstcastle wbr orgNRHP reference No 72000253 1 CHISL No 640 2 Significant datesAdded to NRHPJune 22 1972Designated CHISLApril 28 1958George Hearst William Randolph Hearst s father had purchased the original 40 000 acre 162 km2 estate in 1865 and Camp Hill the site for the future Hearst Castle was used for family camping vacations during Hearst s youth In 1919 Hearst inherited some 11 000 000 equivalent to 172 000 000 in 2021 and estates including the land at San Simeon He used his fortune to further develop his media empire of newspapers magazines and radio stations the profits from which supported a lifetime of building and collecting Within a few months of Phoebe Hearst s death he had commissioned Morgan to build something a little more comfortable up on the hill the genesis of the present castle Morgan was an architectural pioneer America s first truly independent female architect 4 she was the first woman to study architecture at the School of Beaux Arts in Paris the first to have her own architectural practice in California and the first female winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal She worked in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years and the castle at San Simeon is her best known creation In the Roaring Twenties and into the 1930s Hearst Castle reached its social peak Originally intended to be a family home for Hearst his wife Millicent and their five sons by 1925 Hearst s marriage was effectively over and San Simeon became his domain and that of his mistress the actress Marion Davies Their guest list included many of the Hollywood stars of the period Charlie Chaplin Cary Grant the Marx Brothers Greta Garbo Buster Keaton Mary Pickford Jean Harlow and Clark Gable all visited some on multiple occasions Political luminaries encompassed Calvin Coolidge and Winston Churchill while other notables included Charles Lindbergh P G Wodehouse and Bernard Shaw Visitors gathered each evening at Casa Grande for drinks in the assembly room dined in the refectory and watched the latest movie in the theater before retiring to the luxurious accommodation provided by the guest houses of Casa del Mar Casa del Monte and Casa del Sol During the days they admired the views rode played tennis bowls or golf and swam in the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth 5 While Hearst entertained Morgan built the castle was under almost continual construction from 1920 until 1939 with work resuming after the end of World War II until Hearst s final departure in 1947 Hearst his castle and his lifestyle were satirized by Orson Welles in his 1941 film Citizen Kane In the film which Hearst sought to suppress Charles Foster Kane s palace Xanadu is said to contain paintings pictures statues the very stones of many another palace a collection of everything so big it can never be cataloged or appraised enough for ten museums the loot of the world 6 Welles s allusion referred to Hearst s mania for collecting the dealer Joseph Duveen called him the Great Accumulator With a passion for acquisition almost from childhood he bought architectural elements art antiques statuary silverware and textiles on an epic scale Shortly after starting San Simeon he began to conceive of making the castle a museum of the best things that I can secure 7 Foremost among his purchases were architectural elements from Western Europe particularly Spain over thirty ceilings doorcases fireplaces and mantels entire monasteries paneling and a medieval tithe barn were purchased shipped to Hearst s Brooklyn warehouses and transported on to California Much was then incorporated into the fabric of Hearst Castle In addition he built up collections of more conventional art and antiques of high quality his assemblage of ancient Greek vases was one of the world s largest In May 1947 Hearst s health compelled him and Marion Davies to leave the castle for the last time He died in Los Angeles in 1951 Morgan died in 1957 The following year the Hearst family gave the castle and many of its contents to the State of California and the mansion was opened to the public in June 1958 It has since operated as the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument and attracts about 750 000 visitors annually The Hearst family retains ownership of the majority of the 82 000 acres 332 km2 wider estate and under a land conservation agreement reached in 2005 has worked with the California State Parks Department and American Land Conservancy to preserve the undeveloped character of the area the setting for the castle which Bernard Shaw is said to have described as what God would have built if he had had the money 8 Contents 1 History 1 1 Early history to 1864 1 2 Buying the land 1865 1919 1 3 Morgan and Hearst a true collaboration 1 4 Having a ball 1925 1938 1 5 The specter at the feast Hearst Welles and Xanadu 1 6 Depression death and after 1939 present 2 Architecture 2 1 Design 2 2 Construction 2 3 Costs 2 4 Plan of the castle complex 2 5 Casa del Mar 2 6 Casa del Monte 2 7 Casa del Sol 2 8 Casa Grande 2 8 1 Assembly room 2 8 2 Refectory 2 8 3 Library 2 8 4 Cloisters and the Doge s Suite 2 8 5 Gothic suite 2 8 6 Celestial suites 2 8 7 North and South wings 2 9 Planned but uncompleted elements 3 Collections 3 1 Antiquities 3 2 Sculptures 3 3 Textiles 3 4 Paintings 4 Gardens and grounds 4 1 Neptune Pool 4 2 Roman Pool 4 3 Pergola and zoo 5 Estate 6 Appreciation 7 See also 8 Footnotes and references 8 1 Footnotes 8 2 References 9 Sources 10 Further reading 11 External linksHistory EditEarly history to 1864 Edit The bell tower of the restored Mission San Miguel Arcangel The coastal range of Southern California has been occupied since prehistoric times 9 The indigenous inhabitants were the Salinans and the Chumash 10 In the late 18th century Spanish missions were established in the area to convert the Native American population 11 The Mission San Miguel Arcangel one of the largest opened in what is now San Luis Obispo county in 1797 12 By the 1840s the mission had declined and the priests departed In that decade the governors of Mexican California distributed the mission lands in a series of grants Three of these were Rancho Piedra Blanca Rancho Santa Rosa and Rancho San Simeon 13 The Mexican American War of 1846 1848 saw the area pass into the control of the United States under the terms of the Mexican Cession The California Gold Rush of the next decade brought an influx of American settlers among whom was the 30 year old George Hearst 14 Buying the land 1865 1919 Edit Further information George Hearst Born in Missouri in 1820 Hearst made his fortune as a miner notably at the Comstock Lode and the Homestake Mine He then undertook a political career becoming a senator in 1886 and bought The San Francisco Examiner 15 Investing in land he bought the Piedra Blanca property in 1865 and subsequently extended his holdings with the acquisition of most of the Santa Rosa estate and much of the San Simeon lands 16 In the 1870s George Hearst built a ranch house on the estate which remains a private property maintained by the Hearst Corporation 17 and the San Simeon area became a site for family camping expeditions including his young son William 18 A particularly favored spot was named Camp Hill the site of the future Hearst Castle 19 Years later Hearst recalled his early memories of the place My father brought me to San Simeon as a boy I had to come up the slope hanging on to the tail of a pony We lived in a cabin on this spot and I could see forever That s the West forever 20 George Hearst developed the estate somewhat introducing beef and dairy cattle planting extensive fruit orchards and expanding the wharf facilities at San Simeon Bay He also bred racehorses 21 While his father developed the ranch Hearst and his mother traveled including an eighteen month tour of Europe in 1873 where Hearst s lifelong obsession with art collecting began 22 At George Hearst s death in 1891 he left an estate of 18 million to his widow including the California ranch 23 Phoebe Hearst shared the cultural and artistic interests of her son collecting art and patronizing architects She was also a considerable philanthropist founding schools and libraries supporting the fledgling University of California Berkeley including the funding of the Hearst Mining Building in memory of her husband and making major donations to a range of women s organizations including the YWCA 24 During this period probably in the late 1890s Mrs Hearst encountered Julia Morgan a young architecture student at Berkeley 18 On Phoebe Hearst s own death in 1919 Hearst inherited the ranch which had grown to 250 000 acres 1 012 km2 3 and 14 mi 23 km of coastline 25 as well as 11 million Within days he was at Morgan s San Francisco office a 27 Morgan and Hearst a true collaboration Edit A true collaboration Left Julia Morgan in about 1926 Right Hearst around 1910 Main articles Julia Morgan and William Randolph Hearst Julia Morgan born in 1872 was forty seven when Hearst entered her office in 1919 Her biographer Mark A Wilson has described her subsequent career as that of America s first independent full time woman architect 28 After studying at Berkeley where she worked with Bernard Maybeck 29 in 1898 she became the first woman to win entry to the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris 30 Passing out from the Ecole in 1902 Morgan returned to San Francisco and took up a post at the architectural practice of John Galen Howard 31 Howard recognized Morgan s talents but also exploited them the best thing about this person is I pay her almost nothing as it is a woman 32 and in 1904 she passed the California architects licensing examination the first woman to do so 33 establishing her own office at 456 Montgomery Street in 1906 34 During her time with Howard Morgan was commissioned by Phoebe Hearst to undertake work at her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona estate at Pleasanton 35 This led to work at Wyntoon and to a number of commissions from Hearst himself an unexecuted design for a mansion at Sausalito north of San Francisco a cottage at the Grand Canyon and the Los Angeles Examiner Building b 18 In 1919 when he turned up at Morgan s office Hearst was fifty six years old and the owner of a publishing empire that included twenty eight newspapers thirteen magazines eight radio stations four film studios extensive real estate holdings and thirty one thousand employees 36 37 He was also a significant public figure although his political endeavors had proved largely unsuccessful the influence he exerted through his very direct control of his media empire attracted fame and opprobrium in equal measure In 1917 one biographer described him as the most hated man in the country 38 The actor Ralph Bellamy a guest at San Simeon in the mid 1930s recorded Hearst s working methods in a description of a party in the assembly room the party was quite gay And in the midst of it Mr Hearst came in There was a teletype machine just inside and he stopped and he read it He went to a table and picked up a phone He asked for the editor of his San Francisco newspaper and he said Put this in a two column box of the front pages of all the newspapers tomorrow morning And without notes he dictated an editorial 39 Morgan and Hearst s partnership at San Simeon lasted from 1919 until his final departure from the castle in 1947 Their correspondence preserved in the Julia Morgan archive in the Robert E Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo runs to some 3 700 letters and telegrams c 41 Victoria Kastner Hearst Castle s in house custodian has described the partnership as a rare true collaboration and there are many contemporary accounts of the closeness of the relationship Walter Steilberg a draughtsman in Morgan s office once observed them at dinner The rest of us could have been a hundred miles away they didn t pay any attention to anybody these two very different people just clicked 42 Thomas Aidala in his 1984 history of the castle made a similar observation seated opposite each other they would discuss and review work consider design changes pass drawings back and forth seemingly oblivious of the rest of the guests 43 Having a ball 1925 1938 Edit Marion Davies Hearst s lover from 1918 and chatelaine of Hearst Castle Hearst and his family occupied Casa Grande for the first time at Christmas 1925 44 Thereafter Hearst s wife Millicent went back to New York and from 1926 until they left for the last time in 1947 Hearst s mistress Marion Davies acted as his chatelaine at the castle 45 The Hollywood and political elite often visited in the 1920s and 1930s Among Hearst s guests were Calvin Coolidge Winston Churchill Charlie Chaplin Cary Grant the Marx Brothers Charles Lindbergh Jean Harlow and Clark Gable 46 Churchill described his host and Millicent Hearst and Davies in a letter to his own wife a grave simple child with no doubt a nasty temper playing with the most costly toys two magnificent establishments two charming wives complete indifference to public opinion oriental hospitalities d 49 Weekend guests were either brought by private train from Glendale Station north of Los Angeles and then by car to the castle or flew into Hearst s airstrip generally arriving late on Friday evening or on Saturday 50 Cecil Beaton wrote of his impressions during his first visit for New Year s Eve in 1931 we caught sight of a vast sparkling white castle in Spain It was out of a fairy story The sun poured down with theatrical brilliance on tons of white marble and white stone There seemed to be a thousand statues pedestals urns The flowers were unreal in their ordered profusion Hearst stood smiling at the top of one of the many flights of garden steps 51 Guests were generally left to their own devices during the day Horse riding shooting swimming golf croquet and tennis were all available 52 while Hearst would lead mounted parties for picnics on the estate 53 The only absolute deadline was for cocktails in the assembly room at 7 30 on Saturday night Alcohol was rationed guests were not permitted to have liquor in their rooms and were limited to one cocktail each before dinner 54 This was due not to meanness on Hearst s part but to his concerns over Davies s alcoholism though the rule was frequently flouted e The actor David Niven later reflected on his supplying illicit alcohol to Davies It seemed fun at the time to stoke up her fire of outrageous fun and I got a kick out of feeling I had outwitted one of the most powerful and best informed men on earth but what a disloyal and crummy betrayal of him and what a nasty potential nail to put in her coffin 56 Dinner was served at 9 00 in the refectory 57 Wine came from Hearst s 7 000 bottle cellar 56 Charlie Chaplin commented on the fare dinners were elaborate pheasant wild duck partridge and venison but also the informality amidst the opulence we were served paper napkins it was only when Mrs Hearst was in residence that the guests were given linen ones The informality extended to the ketchup bottles and condiments in jars which were remarked on by many guests f 59 Dinner was invariably followed by a movie initially outside and then in the theater The actress Ilka Chase recorded a showing in the early 1930s the theater was not yet complete the plaster was still wet so an immense pile of fur coats was heaped at the door and each guest picked one up and enveloped himself before entering Hearst and Marion close together in the gloom and bundled in their fur coats looked for all the world like the big and baby bears 60 Movies were generally films from Hearst s own studio Cosmopolitan Productions 61 and often featured Marion Davies Sherman Eubanks whose father worked as an electrician at the castle recorded in an oral history Mr Hearst would push a button and call up to the projectionist and say Put on Marion s Peg o My Heart So I ve seen Peg o My Heart about fifty times This is not being critical I m simply saying that s the way it was 62 Chase noted that this repetition tended to put a slight strain on the guests gratitude 63 In 1937 Patricia Van Cleeve married at the castle the grandest social occasion there since the visit of President and Mrs Coolidge in February 1930 64 Ken Murray records these two events as the only occasions when formal attire was required of guests to the castle 65 Van Cleeve who married the actor Arthur Lake was always introduced as Marion Davies favorite niece 66 It was frequently rumored that she was in fact Davies and Hearst s daughter something she herself acknowledged just before her death in 1993 67 68 In February 1938 a plane crash at the San Simeon airstrip led to the deaths of Lord and Lady Plunket who were traveling to the castle as Hearst s guests and the pilot Tex Phillips The only other passenger the bobsledding champion James Lawrence survived 69 The specter at the feast Hearst Welles and Xanadu Edit Main article Citizen Kane A publicity shot for Citizen Kane Hearst Castle was the inspiration for Xanadu and Hearst himself the main model for Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles s 1941 film Citizen Kane 70 71 72 73 Having made his name with the Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds in 1938 Welles arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to make a film version of Joseph Conrad s novel Heart of Darkness for RKO Pictures 74 That film was not made and Welles began a collaboration with the screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz on a screenplay originally entitled American The film tells the stories of Kane a media magnate and aspiring politician and of his second wife Susan Alexander a failed opera singer driven to drink g who inhabit a castle in Florida filled with paintings pictures statues the very stones of many another palace a collection of everything so big it can never be cataloged or appraised enough for ten museums the loot of the world 6 Filming began in June 1940 and the movie premiered on 1 June 1941 76 Although at the time Welles and RKO denied that the film was based on Hearst his long time friend and collaborator John Houseman was clear the truth is simple for the basic concept of Charles Foster Kane and for the main lines and significant events of his public life Mankiewicz used as his model the figure of William Randolph Hearst 77 Told of the film s content before its release his friends the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons having attended early screenings Hearst made strenuous efforts to stop the premiere When these failed he sought to damage the film s circulation by alternately forbidding all mention of it in his media outlets or by using them to attack both the movie and Welles 71 Hearst s assault damaged the film at the box office and harmed Welles subsequent career 78 Since its inception in 1952 through to 2012 the Sight and Sound Critics Poll voted Citizen Kane the greatest film of all time in every decade of polling h i 79 On 9 March 2012 the film was screened in the movie theater at Hearst Castle for the first time as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival 81 Depression death and after 1939 present Edit Casa Grande at night By the late 1930s the Great Depression and Hearst s profligacy had brought him to the brink of financial ruin 82 Debts totaled 126 million j 84 He was compelled to cede financial control of the Hearst Corporation newspapers and radio stations were sold and much of his art collection was dispersed in a series of sales often for much less than he had paid Hearst railed against his losses and the perceived incompetence of the sales agents Parish Watson amp Co they greatly cheapened them and us he advertises like a bargain basement sale I am heartbroken 85 Construction at Hearst Castle virtually ceased After Pearl Harbor the castle was closed up and Hearst and Davies moved to Wyntoon which was perceived to be less vulnerable to enemy attack 86 They returned in 1945 and construction on a limited scale recommenced finally ending in 1947 87 In early May of that year with his health declining Hearst and Davies left the castle for the last time 88 The pair settled in at 1007 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills 89 Hearst died in 1951 k his death abruptly severing him from Davies who was excluded from the funeral by Hearst s family For thirty two years I had him and they leave me with his empty room 91 In 1950 Julia Morgan closed her San Francisco office after a career of forty two years Ill health circumscribed her retirement and she died a virtual recluse in early 1957 92 In 1958 the Hearst Corporation donated Hearst Castle its gardens and many of its contents to the state of California A dedicatory plaque at the castle reads La Cuesta Encantada presented to the State of California in 1958 by the Hearst Corporation in memory of William Randolph Hearst who created this Enchanted Hill and of his mother Phoebe Apperson Hearst who inspired it 93 The castle was opened to the public for the first time in June 1958 94 Hearst Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 22 1972 and became a United States National Historic Landmark on May 11 1976 2 95 Hearst was always keen to protect the mystique of his castle In 1926 he wrote to Morgan to congratulate her after a successful party was held on the hill those wild movie people said it was wonderful and that the most extravagant dream of a movie picture fell far short of this reality They all wanted to make a picture there but they are NOT going to be allowed to do this 96 Commercial filming at the castle is still rarely allowed since 1957 only two projects have been granted permission Stanley Kubrick s 1960 film Spartacus used the castle to stand in as Crassus villa 97 and in 2014 Lady Gaga s music video for G U Y was filmed at the Neptune and Roman Pools 98 On February 12 1976 the Casa del Sol guesthouse was damaged by a bomb The device was placed by allies of the Symbionese Liberation Army SLA in retaliation for Patty Hearst Hearst s granddaughter testifying in court at her trial for armed robbery following her kidnapping by the SLA in 1974 99 On December 22 2003 an earthquake occurred with its epicenter some three miles north of the castle With a magnitude of 6 5 it was the largest earthquake recorded at San Simeon the very limited structural damage which resulted was a testament to the quality of the castle s construction 100 Since its opening the castle has become a major California tourist attraction attracting over 850 000 visitors in 2018 Recent changes to the tour arrangements now allow visitors time to explore the grounds independently at the conclusion of the conducted tours 101 The Hearst family maintains a connection with the castle which was closed for a day in early August 2019 for the wedding of Amanda Hearst Hearst s great granddaughter 102 The castle closed in March 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic Many projects and repairs that would have been impossible to undertake with the castle open to tourists were completed during the closure 103 The castle reopened on May 11 2022 104 Architecture Edit Design Edit Hearst first approached Morgan with ideas for a new project in April 1919 shortly after the death of his mother had brought him into his inheritance 105 His original idea was to build a bungalow according to Walter Steilberg one of Morgan s draftsmen who recalled Hearst s words from the initial meeting I would like to build something up on the hill at San Simeon I get tired of going up there and camping in tents I m getting a little too old for that I d like to get something that would be a little more comfortable 27 The Church of Santa Maria la Mayor Ronda Hearst s main inspiration Within a month Hearst s original ideas for a modest dwelling had greatly expanded Discussion on the style began with consideration of Jappo Swisso themes 105 Then the Spanish Colonial Revival style was favored 106 Morgan had used this style when she worked on Hearst s Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915 l 18 Hearst appreciated the Spanish Revival but was dissatisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California 27 Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication but he objected to its abundance of ornamentation Thomas Aidala in his 1984 study of the castle notes the Churrigueresque influence on the design of the main block flat and unembellished exterior surfaces decorative urges are particularized and isolated focused mainly on doorways windows and towers 109 The Panama California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approximations in California to the approach Hearst desired 110 But his European tours and specifically the inspiration of the Iberian Peninsula led him to Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain that more exactly suited his tastes m 110 He particularly admired a church in Ronda Spain and asked Morgan to model the Casa Grande towers after it In a letter to Morgan dated December 31 1919 Hearst wrote The San Diego Exposition is the best source of Spanish in California The alternative is to build in the Renaissance style of southern Spain We picked out the towers of the church at Ronda a Renaissance decoration particularly that of the very southern part of Spain could harmonize well with them I would very much like to have your views on what style of architecture we should select 112 This blend of Southern Spanish Renaissance Revival and Mediterranean examples became San Simeon s defining style something a little different than other people are doing out in California 112 The architectural writers Arrol Gellner and Douglas Keister describe Casa Grande as a palatial fusion of Classicism and Mediterranean architecture that transcended the Mission Revival era and instead belonged to the more archaeological Period Revival styles that gained favor after the Panama California Exposition of 1915 113 Hearst Castle has a total of 42 bedrooms 61 bathrooms 19 sitting rooms 114 127 acres 0 5 km2 3 of gardens indoor and outdoor swimming pools tennis courts a movie theater an airfield and during Hearst s lifetime the world s largest private zoo 115 Hearst was an inveterate rethinker who would frequently order the redesign of previously agreed and often built structures the Neptune Pool was rebuilt three times before he was satisfied 116 He was aware of his propensity for changing his mind in a letter dated 18 March 1920 he wrote to Morgan All little houses stunning Please complete before I can think up any more changes 117 As a consequence of Hearst s persistent design changes and financial difficulties in the early and later 1930s the complex was never finished 87 By late summer 1919 Morgan had surveyed the site analyzed its geology and drawn initial plans for Casa Grande Construction began in 1919 and continued through 1947 when Hearst left the estate for the last time 3 During the early years of construction until Hearst s stays at San Simeon became longer and more frequent his approval for the ongoing design was obtained by Morgan sending him models of planned developments By the late 1920s the main model designed by another female architect Julian C Mesic had become too large to ship and Mesic and Morgan would photograph it hand color the images and send these to Hearst 118 Construction Edit The castle s location presented major challenges for construction It was remote when Morgan began coming to the estate for site visits in 1919 she would leave her San Francisco office on Friday afternoon and take an eight hour 200 mile train journey to San Luis Obispo followed by a fifty mile drive to San Simeon n 119 The relative isolation made recruiting and retaining a workforce a constant difficulty 120 In the early years the estate lacked water its limited supplies coming from three natural springs on Pine Mountain a 3 500 ft high 1 100 m peak seven miles 11 km east of Hearst Castle 121 The issue was addressed by the construction of three reservoirs and Morgan devised a gravity based water delivery system that transported water from the nearby mountain springs to the reservoirs including the main one on Rocky Butte a 2 000 ft 610 m knoll less than a mile southeast from Hearst Castle 122 Water was of particular importance as well as feeding the pools and fountains Hearst desired it provided electricity by way of a private hydroelectric plant until the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation began service to the castle in 1924 123 The climate presented a further challenge The proximity to the coast brought strong winds in from the Pacific Ocean and the site s elevation meant that winter storms were frequent and severe 110 We are all leaving the hill We are drowned blown and frozen out Before we build anything more let s make what we have practical comfortable and beautiful If we can t do that we might just as well change the names of the houses to Pneumonia House Diphtheria House and Influenza Bungalow The main house we can call the Clinic Hearst s letter of February 1927 after a visit during a period of severe storms 124 Water was also essential for the production of concrete the main structural component of the houses and their ancillary buildings 100 Morgan had substantial experience of building in steel reinforced concrete and together with the firm of consulting engineers Earl and Wright experimented in finding suitable stone eventually settling on that quarried from the mountain top on which the foundation platform for the castle was built 100 Combining this with desalinated sand from San Simeon Bay produced concrete of exceptionally high quality 125 Later white sand was brought in from Carmel Material for construction was transported either by train and truck or by sea into a wharf built in San Simeon Bay below the site In time a light railway was constructed from the wharf to the castle and Morgan built a compound of warehouses for storage and accommodation for workers by the bay 120 Brick and tile works were also developed on site as brick was used extensively and tiling was an important element of the decoration of the castle Morgan used several tile companies to produce her designs including Grueby Faience Batchelder California Faience and Solon amp Schemmel 126 Albert Solon and Frank Schemmel came to Hearst Castle to undertake tiling work and Solon s brother Camille was responsible for the design of the mosaics of blue and gold Venetian glass tile used in the Roman pool and the murals in Hearst s Gothic library 127 Morgan worked with a series of construction managers Henry Washburn from 1919 to 1922 125 then Camille Rossi from 1922 until his firing by Hearst in 1932 o and finally George Loorz until 1940 129 From 1920 to 1939 there were between 25 and 150 workmen employed in construction at the castle 130 Costs Edit The front courtyard of Casa del Mar The exact cost of the entire San Simeon complex is unknown 131 Kastner makes an estimate of expenditure on construction and furnishing the complex between 1919 and 1947 as under 10 000 000 132 Thomas Aidala suggests a slightly more precise figure for the overall cost at between 7 2 and 8 2 million 133 Hearst s relaxed approach to using the funds of his companies and sometimes the companies themselves to make personal purchases made clear accounting for expenditure almost impossible p In 1927 one of his lawyers wrote the entire history of your corporation shows an informal method of withdrawal of funds 96 In 1945 when the Hearst Corporation was closing the Hearst Castle account for the final time Morgan gave a breakdown of construction costs which did not include expenditure on antiques and furnishings Casa Grande s build cost is given as 2 987 000 and that for the guest houses 500 000 Other works including nearly half a million dollars on the Neptune pool brought the total to 4 717 000 Morgan s fees for twenty odd years of almost continuous work came to 70 755 135 Her initial fee was a 6 commission on total costs This was later increased to 8 5 Many additional expenses and challenges in getting prompt payment led her to receive rather less than this Kastner suggests that Morgan made an overall profit of 100 000 on the entire twenty year project 136 Her modest remuneration was unimportant to her At the height of Hearst s financial travails in the late 1930s when his debts stood at over 87 million 83 Morgan wrote to him I wish you would use me in any way that relieves your mind as to the care of your belongings There never has been nor will there be any charge in this connection it is an honor and a pleasure 137 Plan of the castle complex Edit Casa del Mar Edit Casa del Mar the largest of the three guest houses provided accommodation for Hearst himself until Casa Grande was ready in 1925 138 He stayed in the house again in 1947 during his last visit to the ranch 139 Casa del Mar contains 5 350 square feet 546 m2 of floor space 140 Although luxuriously designed and furnished none of the guest houses had kitchen facilities an omission that sometimes irritated Hearst s guests Adela Rogers St Johns recounted her first visit I rang and asked the maid for coffee With a smile she said I would have to go up to the castle for that I asked Marion Davies about this She said W R Hearst did not approve of breakfast in bed 141 Adjacent to Casa del Mar is the wellhead Italian Pozzo from Phoebe Hearst s Hacienda del Pozo de Verona which Hearst moved to San Simeon when he sold his mother s estate after her death in 1919 142 Casa del Monte Edit The single story front elevation of Casa del Monte Casa del Monte was the first of the guest houses originally entitled simply Houses A del Mar B del Monte and C del Sol 110 built by Morgan on the slopes below the site of Casa Grande during 1920 1924 143 Hearst had initially wanted to begin work with the construction of the main house but Morgan persuaded him to begin with the guest cottages because the smaller structures could be completed more quickly 144 Each guest house faces the Esplanade and appears as a single story at its front entrance Additional stories descend rearward down the terraced mountain side 145 Casa del Monte has 2 550 sq ft 237 m2 of living space 140 Casa del Sol Edit The rear elevation of Casa del Sol The guest houses flank Casa Grande echoing a tented encampment and are single storied at the front elevations with multiple levels to the rear The decorative style of the Casa del Sol is Moorish accentuated by the use of antique Persian tiles 146 A bronze copy of Donatello s David stands atop a copy of an original Spanish fountain q 147 The inspiration for the fountain came from an illustration in a book The Minor Ecclesiastical Domestic and Garden Architecture of Southern Spain written by Austin Whittlesey and published in 1919 Hearst sent a copy to Morgan while retaining another for himself and it proved a fertile source of ideas 148 The size of the house is 3 620 square feet 242 m2 140 Morgan s staff were responsible for the cataloguing of those parts of Hearst s art collection which were shipped to California and an oral record made in the 1980s indicates the methodology used for furnishing the buildings at San Simeon We would set the object up and then I would stand with a yardstick to give it scale Sam Crow would take a picture Then we would give it a number and I would write a description These were made into albums When Mr Hearst would write and say I want a Florentine mantel in Cottage C in Room B and four yards of tiles then we would look it up in the books and find something that would fit 149 Casa Grande Edit Casa Grande from the Esplanade Construction of Casa Grande began in April 1922 150 Work continued almost until Hearst s final departure on May 2 1947 and even then the house was unfinished 151 The size of Casa Grande is 68 500 square feet 5 634 m2 140 The main western facade is four stories the entrance front inspired by a gateway in Seville 152 is flanked by twin bell towers modeled on the tower of the church of Santa Maria la Mayor 112 The layout of the main house was originally to a T plan with the assembly room to the front and the refectory at a right angle to its center r 155 The subsequent extensions of the North and South wings modified the original design As elsewhere the core construction material is concrete though the facade is faced in stone 156 In October 1927 Morgan wrote to Arthur Byne We finally took the bull by the horns and are facing the entire main building with a Manti stone from Utah Morgan assured Hearst that it would be the making of the building 157 A cast stone balcony fronts the second floor and another in cast iron the third Above this is a large wooden overhang or gable This was constructed in Siamese teak originally intended to outfit a ship which Morgan located in San Francisco The carving was undertaken by her senior carver Jules Suppo 116 Sara Holmes Boutelle suggests Morgan may have been inspired by a somewhat similar example at the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Arizona 158 The facade terminates with the bell towers comprising the Celestial suites the carillon towers and two cupolas 159 The curator Victoria Kastner notes a particular feature of Casa Grande the absence of any grand staircases Access to the upper floors is either by elevators or stairwells in the corner turrets of the building 153 Many of the stairwells are undecorated and the plain poured concrete contrasts with the richness of the decoration elsewhere 160 The terrace in front of the entrance named Central Plaza 161 has a quatrefoil pond at its center with a statue of Galatea on a Dolphin 162 The statue was inherited having been bought by Phoebe Hearst when her son was temporarily short of money 163 The doorway from the Central Plaza into Casa Grande illustrates Morgan and Hearst s relaxed approach to combining genuine antiques with modern reproductions to achieve the effects they both desired A 16th century iron gate from Spain is topped by a fanlight grille constructed in a matching style in the 1920s by Ed Trinkeller the castle s main ironmonger s 165 The castle made use of the latest technology Casa Grande was wired with an early sound system allowing guests to make music selections which were played from a Capehart phonograph located in the basement and piped into rooms in the house through a system of speakers Alternatively six radio stations were available 166 The entire estate was also equipped with 80 telephones operated through a PBX switchboard 167 which was staffed 24 hours a day and ran under the exclusive exchange Hacienda Fortune recorded an example of Hearst s delighting in the ubiquitous access the system provided a guest fell to wondering how a ball game came out while seated by a campfire with Mr Hearst a day s ride from the castle I ll tell you volunteers Mr Hearst and fumbling with the rock against which he was leaning pulls from there a telephone asks for New York and relieves his guest s curiosity 168 Assembly room Edit The assembly room The assembly room is the main reception room of the castle described by Taylor Coffman in his 1985 study Hearst Castle The Story of William Randolph Hearst and San Simeon as one of San Simeon s most magnificent interiors 138 The fireplace originally from a Burgundian chateau in Jours les Baigneux is named the Great Barney Mantel after a previous owner Charles T Barney from whose estate Hearst bought it after Barney s suicide 169 The mantel had been acquired for Barney by society architect Stanford White and Kastner notes the major influence of White s style on a number of rooms at Hearst Castle in particular the assembly room and the main sitting room in Casa del Mar 170 The ceiling is from an Italian palazzo A concealed door in the paneling next to the fireplace allowed Hearst to surprise his guests by entering unannounced 61 The door opened off an elevator which connected with his Gothic suite on the third floor 171 The assembly room completed in 1926 172 is nearly 2 500 square feet in extent and was described by the writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans as looking like half of Grand Central station 173 The room held some of Hearst s best tapestries 174 These include four from a set celebrating the Roman general Scipio Africanus designed by Giulio Romano and two copied from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting The Triumph of Religion 175 The need to fit the tapestries above the paneling and below the roof required the installation of the unusually low windows The room has the only piece of Art Nouveau decorative art in the castle the Orchid Vase lamp made by Tiffany for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1889 Bought by Phoebe Hearst who had the original vase converted to a lamp Hearst placed it in the assembly room in tribute to his mother 176 Refectory Edit The refectory The refectory was the only dining room in the castle and was built between 1926 and 1927 172 The choir stalls which line the walls are from the La Seu d Urgell Cathedral in Catalonia 177 and the silk flags mounted on the walls are Palio banners from Siena t 179 Hearst originally intended a vaulted Moorish ceiling for the room but finding nothing suitable he and Morgan settled on the Italian Renaissance example dating from around 1600 which Hearst purchased from a dealer in Rome in 1924 180 Victoria Kastner considered that the flat roof with life size carvings of saints strikes a discordant note of horizontality among the vertical lines of the room 181 The style of the whole is Gothic in contrast to the Renaissance approach adopted in the preceding assembly room 159 The refectory is said to have been Morgan s favorite interior within the castle 182 The design of both the refectory and the assembly room was greatly influenced by the monumental architectural elements especially the fireplaces and the choir stalls used as wainscoting and works of art particularly the tapestries which Hearst determined would be incorporated into the rooms 183 The central table provided seating for 22 in its usual arrangement of two tables which could be extended to three or four on the occasion of larger gatherings 184 The tables were sourced from an Italian monastery 185 and were the setting for some of the best pieces from Hearst s collection of silverware One of the finest is a wine cooler dating from the early 18th century and weighing 14 2 kg by the Anglo French silversmith David Willaume 186 Library Edit The library with some of Hearst s collection of ancient Greek vases on the bookshelves The library is on the second floor directly above the assembly room 187 The ceiling is 16th century Spanish and a remnant is used in the library s lobby 160 It comprises three separate ceilings from different rooms in the same Spanish house which Morgan combined into one 188 The fireplace is the largest Italian example in the castle Carved from limestone it is attributed to the medieval sculptor and architect Benedetto da Maiano 189 The room contains a collection of over 5 000 books with another 3 700 in Hearst s study above 190 The majority of the library collections were sold at sales at Parke Bernet at 1939 and Gimbels in 1941 The sales saw the disposal of some of the best items including sets often signed of first editions by Charles Dickens Hearst s favorite author 190 The library is also the location for much of Hearst s important holding of antique Greek vases 191 Cloisters and the Doge s Suite Edit The cloisters form a grouping of four bedrooms above the refectory and along with the doge s suite above the breakfast room were completed in 1925 1926 192 The doge s suite was occupied by Millicent Hearst on her rare visits to the castle 193 The room is lined with blue silk and has a Dutch painted ceiling in addition to two more of Spanish origin which was once the property of architect Stanford White 194 Morgan also incorporated an original Venetian loggia in the suite refashioned as a balcony 194 The suite leads on to Morgan s inventive North and South Duplex apartments with sitting areas and bathrooms at entry level and bedrooms on mezzanine floors above 195 Gothic suite Edit The gothic library with Orrin Peck s portrait of Hearst on the far wall The gothic suite was Hearst s private apartment on the third floor 196 He moved there in 1927 It comprises the gothic study or library and Hearst s own gothic bedroom and private sitting room 196 The ceiling of the bedroom is one of the best Hearst bought Spanish of the 14th century it was discovered by his Iberian agent Arthur Byne who also located the original frieze panels which had been detached and sold some time before u 198 The whole was installed at the castle in 1924 199 The space originally allocated for the study was too low to create the impression desired by Morgan and Hearst a difficulty Morgan surmounted by raising the roof and supporting the ceiling with concrete trusses These and the walls were painted with frescoes by Camille Solon Light was provided by two ranges of clerestory windows 200 The necessity of raising the roof to incorporate the study occasioned one of the few instances where Hearst hesitated I telegraphed you my fear of the cost I imagine it would be ghastly and Morgan urged further changes and expense The result vindicated Morgan 196 The study completed in 1931 is dominated by a portrait of Hearst at age 31 painted by his life long friend Orrin Peck 201 Celestial suites Edit The celestial bedrooms with a connecting shared sitting room were created between 1924 and 1926 202 The bell towers were raised to improve the proportions of the building and the suites constructed in the spaces created below The relatively cramped spaces allowed no room for storage and en suite bathrooms were awkwardly squeezed into lower landings Ludwig Bemelmans a guest in the 1930s recalled there was no place to hang your clothes so I hung mine on wire coat hangers that a former tenant had left hanging on the arms of two six armed gold candelabra the rest I put on the floor 203 The sitting room contains one of the most important paintings in Hearst s collection Bonaparte Before the Sphinx 1868 by Jean Leon Gerome 204 The suites are linked externally by a walkway the celestial bridge which is decorated with elaborate tiling 205 North and South wings Edit The billiard room with part of the millefleur tapestry to the right The north or billiard and the south or service wings complete the castle and were begun in 1929 194 The north wing houses the billiard room on the first floor which was converted from the original breakfast room It has a Spanish antique ceiling and a French fireplace 194 and contains the oldest tapestry in the castle a Millefleur hunting scene woven in Flanders in the 15th century 206 The spandrel over the doorcase is decorated with a frieze of 16th century Persian tiles depicting a battle 207 The 34 tiles originate from Isfahan and were purchased by Hearst at the Kevorkian sale in New York in 1922 208 The theater which leads off the billiard room was used both for amateur theatricals and the showing of movies from Hearst s Cosmopolitan Studios 194 The theater accommodated fifty guests and had an electric keyboard that enabled the bells in the carillon towers to be played The walls are decorated in red damask which originally hung in the assembly room and feature gilded caryatids 209 The upper stories of the north wing were the last to be worked upon and were never completed Activity recommenced in 1945 and Morgan delegated the work to her assistant Warren McClure Many of the rooms are unfinished but Aidala considers that the bathrooms in the wing represent first rate examples of streamline design 210 The service wing contains the kitchen 211 The hotel scale units and worktops are constructed in Monel Metal an expensive form of nickel alloy invented in 1901 212 The wing contains further bedroom suites a staff dining room and gives entry to the 9 000 square foot basement which contained a wine cellar pantries the boiler plant which heated the main house and a barber hairdressing parlour for the use of Hearst s guests 213 Planned but uncompleted elements Edit Hearst and Morgan intended a large ballroom or cloister to connect the North and South wings at the rear of Casa Grande and unify the whole composition but it was never undertaken 214 In 1932 Hearst contemplated incorporating the reja grille he had acquired from Valladolid Cathedral in 1929 into this room 96 He described his vision in a letter to Morgan dated that year A great ballroom and banqueting hall that is the scheme Isn t it a pippin The letter was signed Sincerely Your Assistant Architect 215 Other structures that did not develop beyond drawings and plans included two more guest houses in English and Chinese architectural styles v 172 Collections EditWhy didn t you buy Ansiglioni s Galatea It is superb I have a great notion to buy it myself the one thing that prevents me is a scarcity of funds The man wants eight thousand dollars for the blooming thing I have the art fever terribly Queer isn t it I never miss a gallery and I go and nosey about the pictures and statuary and wish they were mine Hearst s letter of 1889 to his mother after a visit to Ansiglioni s workshop 163 Hearst was a voracious collector of art 217 with the stated intention of making the castle a museum of the best things that I can secure 7 The dealer Joseph Duveen from whom Hearst bought despite their mutual dislike called him the Great Accumulator 218 His robust approach to buying particularly the purchase and removal of entire historic structures generated considerable ill feeling and sometimes outright opposition 219 His deconstruction and removal of the 14th century Bradenstoke Priory in England led the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to organize a campaign which used language so violent that its posters had to be pasted over for fear of a libel suit w 222 Hearst sometimes encountered similar opposition elsewhere In 1919 he was writing to Morgan about the patio from Bergos sic which by the way I own but cannot get out of Spain 26 The dismantling of a monastery in Sacramenia which Hearst bought in its entirety in the 1920s saw his workmen attacked by enraged villagers 223 Hearst s tardiness in paying his bills was another less attractive feature of his purchasing approach in 1925 Morgan was obliged to write to Arthur Byne Mr Hearst accepts your dictum cash or nothing x 197 Some of the finest pieces from the collections of books and manuscripts tapestries paintings antiquities and sculpture amounting to about half of Hearst s total art holdings 225 were sold in sales in the late 1930s and early 1940s when Hearst s publishing empire was facing financial collapse but a great deal remains 226 His art buying had started when he was young and in his tested fashion he established a company the International Studio Arts Corporation as a vehicle for purchasing works and as a means of dealing with their export and import 117 The curator Mary Levkoff divides the collection into four parts the antiquities the sculptures the tapestries and the paintings of which she considers the last of least significance 227 In 1975 the Hearst Corporation donated the archive of Hearst s Brooklyn warehouses the gathering point for almost all of his European acquisitions before their dispersal to his many homes to Long Island University As of 2015 the university has embarked on a digitization project which will ultimately see the 125 albums of records and sundry other materials made available online 228 Antiquities Edit A Greek rhyton The ancient Egyptian Greek and Roman antiquities are the oldest works in Hearst s collection The oldest of all are the stone figures of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet which stand on the South Esplanade below Casa Grande and date from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties approximately 1550 to 1189 BC 229 Morgan designed the pool setting for the pieces with tiling inspired by ancient Egyptian motifs 230 In the courtyard of Casa del Monte is one of a total of nine Roman sarcophagi collected by Hearst dated to 230 AD and previously held at the Palazzo Barberini which was acquired at the Charles T Yerkes sale in 1910 208 The most important element of the antiquities collection is the holding of Greek vases on display in the second floor library 231 Although some 65 vases were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after Hearst s death 232 those which remain at the castle still form one of the world s largest groups y 233 Hearst began collecting vases in 1901 and his collection was moved from his New York homes to the castle in 1935 At its peak the collection numbered over 400 pieces The vases were placed on the tops of the bookshelves in the library each carefully wired in place to guard against vibrations from earthquakes 234 At the time of Hearst s collecting many of the vases were believed to be of Etruscan manufacture but later scholars ascribe all of them to Greece 234 Sculptures Edit Three Graces copy of an original by Canova Hearst often bought multiple lots from sales of major collections in 1930 he purchased five antique Roman statues from the Lansdowne sale in London Four are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and one in the Metropolitan 96 He collected bronzes as well as marble figures a cast of a stone original of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini dating from around 1617 stands in the Doge s suite 235 In addition to his classical sculptures Hearst was content to acquire 19th century versions or contemporary copies of ancient works if we cannot find the right thing in a classic statue we can find a modern one 96 He was a particular patron of Charles Cassou and also favored the early 19th century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen whose Venus Victorious remains at the castle 96 Both this and the genuinely classical Athena from the collection of Thomas Hope were displayed in the Assembly room along with the Venus Italica by Antonio Canova 236 Other works by Thorvaldsen include the four large marble medallions in the Assembly room depicting society s virtues 169 Two 19th century marbles are in the anteroom to the Assembly room Bacchante by Frederick William MacMonnies a copy of his bronze original and Pygmalion and Galatea by Gerome 237 A monumental statue of Galatea attributed to Leopoldo Ansiglioni and dating from around 1882 stands in the center of the pool on the plaza in front of Casa Grande 238 Textiles Edit The millefleur tapestry in the billiard room Tapestries include the Scipio set after Giulio Romano 239 in the assembly room 240 two from a set telling the Biblical story of Daniel in the morning room and the millefleur hunting scene in the Billiard room 241 The last is particularly rare one of only a handful from this period in the world 239 Hearst also assembled and displayed an important collection of Navajo textiles at San Simeon including blankets rugs and serapes Most were purchased from Herman Schweizer who ran the Indian Department of the Fred Harvey Company Originally gathered at Hearst s hacienda at Jolon they were moved to Wyntoon in 1940 before being brought to San Simeon 242 and finally being donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1942 243 Hearst was always interested in pieces that had historical and cultural connections to the history of California and Central and Latin America the North Wing contains two Peruvian armorial banners Dating from the 1580s they show the shields of Don Luis Jeronimo Fernandez Cabrera y Bobadilla Count of Chinchon and viceroy of Peru 244 Nathaniel Burt the composer and critic evaluated the collections at San Simeon thus Far from being the mere kitsch that most easterners have been led to believe San Simeon is full of real beauties and treasures 245 Paintings Edit Gerome s Bonaparte Before the Sphinx which hangs in the sitting room of the celestial suite The art collection includes works by Tintoretto whose portrait of Alvisius Vendramin hangs in the Doge s suite 246 Franz Xaver Winterhalter who carried out the double portraits of Maximilian I of Mexico and his empress Carlota located in Casa del Mar 247 and two portraits of Napoleon by Jean Leon Gerome 248 Hearst s earliest painting a Madonna and Child from the school of Duccio di Buoninsegna dates from the early 14th century 239 A gift from his friend the editor Cissy Patterson the painting hangs in Hearst s bedroom 239 Portrait of a Woman by Giulio Campi hangs in a bedroom in the north wing 249 In 1928 Hearst acquired the Madonna and Child with Two Angels by Adriaen Isenbrandt The curator Taylor Coffman describes this work which hangs in the Casa del Mar sitting room 250 as perhaps San Simeon s finest painting z 252 In 2018 a previously unattributed Annunciation in the assembly room was identified as a work of 1690 by Bartolome Perez 253 254 Gardens and grounds Edit View from the esplanade at the North Lower Terrace The Esplanade a curving paved walkway connects the main house with the guest cottages Hearst described it as giving a finished touch to the big house to frame it in as it were 255 Morgan designed the pedestrianized pavement with great care to create a coup de theatre for guests desiring a strikingly noble and saississant effect be impressed upon everyone on arrival Hearst concurred Heartily approve I certainly want that saississant effect I don t know what it is but I think we ought to have at least one such on the premises 256 A feature of the gardens are the lampposts topped with alabaster globes modeled on janiform hermae the concept was Hearst s aa 172 The Swan lamps remodeled with alabaster globe lights to match the hermae were designed by Morgan s chief draftsman Thaddeus Joy 257 Others whose ideas and approach influenced Hearst and Morgan in their landscaping include Charles Adams Platt an artist and gardener who had made a particular study of the layout and planting of Italian villas 258 Nigel Keep Hearst s orchardman who worked at San Simeon from 1922 to 1947 259 and Albert Webb Hearst s English head gardener who was at the hill during 1922 1948 260 Neptune Pool Edit Main article Neptune Pool The Neptune pool The Neptune pool described by Ginger Wadsworth in her biography of Morgan as the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth 5 is located near the edge of the hilltop and is enclosed by a retaining wall and underpinned by a framework of concrete struts to allow for movement in the event of earthquakes The pool is often cited as an example of Hearst s changeability it was reconstructed three times before he was finally satisfied 261 Originally begun as an ornamental pond it was first expanded in 1924 as Millicent Hearst desired a swimming pool It was enlarged again during 1926 1928 to accommodate Cassou s statuary Finally in 1934 it was extended again to act as a setting for a Roman temple in part original and in part comprising elements from other structures which Hearst transported from Europe and had reconstructed at the site 261 The tiling was undertaken by Solon and Schemmel 126 The pool holds 345 000 gallons of water and is equipped with seventeen shower and changing rooms It was heated by oil fired burners 262 In early 2014 the pool was drained due to drought conditions and leakage 263 After a long term restoration project to fix the leaking the pool was refilled in August 2018 264 265 The restoration of the pool was recognized with a Preservation Design Award for Craftsmanship from the California Preservation Foundation in 2019 266 The pool is well supplied with sculpture particularly works by Charles Cassou His centerpiece opposite the Roman temple is The Birth of Venus 267 An even larger sculptural grouping depicting Neptune in a chariot drawn by four horses was commissioned to fill the empty basin above the Venus Although carved it was never installed ab 269 Roman Pool Edit The Roman pool The Roman pool constructed under the tennis courts provided an indoor alternative to the Neptune pool Originally mooted by Hearst in 1927 construction did not begin until 1930 and the pool was not completed until 1935 270 Hearst initially wanted the pool to be fed by salt water 216 but the design challenges proved to be insuperable A disastrous attempt to fulfill Hearst s desires by pouring 20 tons of washed rock salt into the pool saw the disintegration of the cast iron heat exchanger and pump ac 271 Inspiration for the mosaic decoration came from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna 150 The tiles are of Murano glass with gold leaf and were designed by Solon and manufactured in San Francisco 272 Although a pool of spectacular beauty it was little used being located in a less visited part of the complex 273 Pergola and zoo Edit Two other major features of the grounds were the pergola and the zoo The pergola an ornamental bridleway runs to the west of Casa Grande 274 Comprising concrete columns covered in espaliered fruit trees Morgan ensured that it was built to a height sufficient to allow Hearst a tall man with a tall hat on a tall horse 275 to ride unimpeded down its mile long length 274 Plans for a zoo to house Hearst s large collection of wild animals were drawn up by Morgan and included an elephant house and separate enclosures for antelopes camels zebras and bears This was never constructed but a range of shelters and pits were built 276 sited on Orchard Hill 277 Estate Edit Sunset at San Simeon Bay Hearst Castle is located near the town of San Simeon California approximately 250 mi 400 km from both Los Angeles and San Francisco and 43 mi 69 km from San Luis Obispo at the northern end of San Luis Obispo County 278 The estate itself is five miles eight km inland atop a hill of the Santa Lucia Range at an altitude of 1 600 ft 490 m The region is sparsely populated because the Santa Lucia Range abuts the Pacific Ocean which provides dramatic vistas but offers few opportunities for development and hampers transportation The surrounding countryside remains largely undeveloped The castle s entrance is approximately five miles north of Hearst San Simeon State Park 279 At the height of Hearst s ownership the estate totaled more than 250 000 acres 280 W C Fields commented on the extent of the estate while on a visit Wonderful place to bring up children You can send them out to play They won t come back till they re grown 281 The gardens and terraces immediately surrounding the castle total roughly 22 acres 88305 sqm see plan Some 23 miles to the north of the castle Morgan constructed the Milpitas Hacienda a ranchhouse that acted as a trianon to the main estate and as a focus for riding expeditions 282 In 1957 the castle and its contents with 120 acres of the gardens were transferred to the guardianship of the California State Parks Department 16 In 2005 the wider setting for the castle was protected by a conservation arrangement between the Department American Land Conservancy and the Hearst Corporation which aimed to preserve the undeveloped character of the coast Years earlier the writer Henry Miller had described the Big Sur area as the California that men dreamed of the face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look 16 Miller s comment echoes an earlier observation on San Simeon made by Bernard Shaw This is what God would have built if he had had the money ad 8 The agreement reached between the state and the family has not been without controversy The deal which saw the Hearst family receive 80 million in cash together with 15 million in state tax credits in exchange for ceding development rights on the majority of the estate has been criticized as being too generous to the Hearsts and for restricting public access to the estate 285 The deal s sponsors disagreed Mike Chrisman California s then Secretary for Resources describing the agreement as a landmark effort and a big deal for the state for Hearst Corp and the family and the public 286 Appreciation Edit The sitting room in the Doge s Suite As with Hearst himself Hearst Castle and its collections have been the subject of considerable criticism From the 1940s the view of Hearst and Morgan s most important joint creation as the phantasmagorical Xanadu of Orson Welles s imagination has been commonplace 287 288 Although some literary depictions were gently mocking P G Wodehouse s novel of 1953 Ring for Jeeves published in America in 1954 as The Return of Jeeves has a character describe her stay I remember visiting at San Simeon once and there was a whole French Abbey lying on the grass ae 290 others were not John Steinbeck s unnamed description was certainly of Hearst They s a fella newspaper fella near the coast got a million acres Fat sof fella with little mean eyes an a mouth like a ass hole 291 The writer John Dos Passos went further explicitly referencing Hearst in the third volume of his 1938 U S A trilogy The emperor of newsprint retired to his fief of San Simeon where he built an Andalusian palace and there spends his last years amid the relaxing adulations of screenstars admen screenwriters publicity men columnists Until he dies a spent Caesar grown old with spending 292 The English architectural writer Clive Aslet was little more complimentary about the castle Disliking its unsympathetic texture of poured concrete he described it as best seen from a distance 106 The unfinished and unresolved rear facade of Casa Grande has been the subject of particular negative comment Carleton Winslow and Nicola Frye in their history from 1980 suggest the flanking north and south wings compete rather disastrously with the central doge s suite block 293 Others questioned the castle s very existence the architect Witold Rybczynski asking what is this Italian villa doing on the Californian Coastal Range a costly piece of theatrical decor that ignores its context and lacks meaning 294 Hearst s collections were similarly disparaged the art historian William George Constable echoed Joseph Duveen when he assessed Hearst as not a collector but a gigantic and voracious magpie 295 Later decades after Hearst s death have seen a more sympathetic and appreciative evaluation of his collections and the estate he and Morgan created to house them The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas Hoving although listing Hearst only at number 83 in his evaluation of America s top 101 art collectors wrote Hearst is being reevaluated He may have been much more of a collector than was thought at the time of his death 296 The curator Mary Levkoff in her 2008 study Hearst the Collector contends that he was describing the four separate staggeringly important collections of antique vases tapestries armor and silver which Hearst brought together af 298 and writing of the challenge of bringing their artistic merit to light from under the shadow of his own reputation ag 300 Of Morgan s building its stock has risen with the re evaluation of her standing and accomplishments which saw her inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008 301 become the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2014 ah 303 and to have an obituary in The New York Times as recently as 2019 ai 307 The writer John Julius Norwich recorded his personal recantation after a visit to the castle I went prepared to mock I remained to marvel Hearst Castle is a palace in every sense of the word 308 Victoria Kastner for many years the in house historian of Hearst Castle and author of a number of books on its design and history concludes her history of the castle with an assessment of San Simeon as the quintessential twentieth century American country house 309 See also EditList of largest houses in the United StatesFootnotes and references EditFootnotes Edit Mary Levkoff suggests that the initial discussion regarding San Simeon took place just before Phoebe Hearst s death in late March or early April 1919 26 Mark Alan Hewitt in his study The Architect amp the American Country House 1890 1940 estimates that Morgan designed some seven hundred buildings over the course of her career 33 From 2019 the Kennedy Library has been undertaking digitalization of the Morgan Hearst correspondence with the results to be made available online 40 During his visit to San Simeon in September 1929 Churchill encountered William Van Antwerp an anglophile stockbroker and book collector 47 Sensing an opportunity Churchill immediately opened an account with Van Antwerp s brokerage His timing was unfortunate within a month the Wall Street Crash saw his American losses exceed 75 000 48 The limitation of the serving of alcohol at the castle irritated some guests Eddie Sutherland the film director and husband of Louise Brooks left after three days I ll be dammed if I ll be rousted out of the hay by a cowbell at eight o clock every morning for breakfast and have my liquor rationed as if I was some silly schoolboy 55 Ken Murray in his history The Golden Days of San Simeon reproduces the menu card for 4 July 1946 the last full year of Hearst s residence at the castle Listing the times for meals as Breakfast 9 00 to 12 00 Luncheon 2 00 and Dinner 9 00 for the evening meal guests were to be served Fried olympic oysters roast partridge gravy bread sauce artichokes hollandaise cake and cherry ice cream The card also records the evening movie The Perfect Marriage with David Niven and Loretta Young showing at the castle some seven months before its official release 58 Kastner suggests that Welles s portrayal of Susan Foster Kane modelled on Davies as a pitiful drunkard was the element of the film that most angered Hearst 75 In 2012 it was beaten by Alfred Hitchcock s Vertigo 79 Orson Welles ashes were interred on a farm outside Ronda belonging to his longtime friend the matador Antonio Ordonez 80 Victoria Kastner suggests the lower but still enormous figure of 87 million dollars 83 The pallbearers for Hearst s coffin included Herbert Hoover Earl Warren Douglas MacArthur Bernard Baruch and Louis B Mayer 90 In his study The Spanish Style House which is jointly dedicated to Julia Morgan and Paul Revere Williams 107 Ruben G Mendoza suggests that Morgan s most successful designs drew on the Mission and Moorish as well as the Spanish Colonial Revival styles 108 In their study Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles Polyzoides Sherwood and Tice trace the influence of Spanish and particularly Andalusian architectural styles in California back to Washington Irving s Tales of the Alhambra published in 1832 111 Between 1919 and 1939 Morgan made the journey a total of 558 times 119 Rossi whose involvement in both the construction and the design of the complex was considerable had an abrasive personality and by 1932 had exhausted the patience of both Hearst and Morgan 128 As an example St Donat s Castle was purchased not by Hearst but by his National Magazine Company 134 Ken Murray the home movie maker who chronicled San Simeon at its social apogee incorrectly identifies the fountain as an Italian original 146 The somewhat unusual T plan was dictated in part by the presence of two old oaks on the site which as Hearst was unwilling to uproot them led Morgan to fit the main structure around them 153 Later the castle workforce would develop considerable skill in relocating large oak trees by tunneling under them encasing them in reinforced concrete and moving them on rollers to their desired new locations 154 In a letter to Hearst dated June 3rd 1927 Morgan wrote of the wormers carpenters who artificially aged new work the Gothic Sitting Room ceiling is in It took some real good nature on the part of the wormers to match up new with old work 164 The banners now hanging in the refectory are copies the originals having proved too fragile to allow for their permanent display 178 Byne was Hearst s single most successful supplier of Spanish antiques and architectural pieces Of the thirty antique ceilings incorporated into buildings on the estate Byne sourced more than any other single supplier 197 A plan elaborate even by Hearst s standards for a winter garden on the hill to be a combination orchid greenhouse and indoor pool with plate glass partition for sharks never materialized 216 Hearst s biographer David Nasaw refers to elements of the priory being discovered in crates in a Hearst Corporation warehouse in Los Angeles in 1960 These were subsequently sold to a hotelier in San Luis Obispo 220 whose son was as of 2018 planning to reconstruct them 221 Social upheaval in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s which led eventually to the outbreak of civil war made buying and removing artifacts problematic but also offered opportunities In October 1923 Byne wrote to Hearst with a threatened revolution I found the owner in a much more reasonable mood in fact rather anxious to sell 224 One of the oldest examples is the Baring Amphora dating from 740BC and purchased by Hearst at the Revelstone sale in London in 1935 208 The Hearst Castle curator Victoria Kastner suggests this work may be by Ambrosius Benson Both Isenbrandt and Benson were strongly influenced by the Flemish master Gerard David and both worked in Bruges in the early 16th century 251 In September 1927 Hearst wrote to Morgan take those caryatids from one of the Roman villas where they are holding some kind of cup or globe on top of their heads and make some kind of cast stone models out of these and put lights in place of the vase 20 The grouping completed by Cassou in the late 1930s was not shipped to America until after Hearst s death due to post war import restrictions In 1956 the group was purchased by the Forest Lawn Memorial Park but was destroyed in a pier explosion at Brooklyn docks Three other statues completed by Cassou at the same time as the Neptune and depicting Diana and other mythological figures ultimately made their way to Forest Lawn 268 Alex Rankin a plumber working on the pool recalled the incident in an Oral History Project undertaken by Hearst Castle in 1986 Mr Hearst gave Mr Willicombe his secretary an order Put salt in the water I said You can t put salt into this pool the pipes are not designed for it He said Mr Hearst wants salt water in the pool About a week later I see a big truck loaded right to the top with rock salt to put in the pool The heater exchanger where the copper tubes and steel comes together it ate it all out The pump broke and inside the cast iron was like cheese You could cut it with a knife 271 The quote has also been recorded as Shaw s comment on St Donat s Castle Hearst s genuine medieval castle in Wales 283 It has also been attributed to other people among them Alexander Wolcott and George S Kaufman and to other places 284 Wodehouse also recorded his impressions of his host There are two kinds of elderly American One is mateyness itself The other broods It says little Every now and then you catch its eye and it is like colliding with a raw oyster Mine host belongs to the latter class 289 Hearst s collections of armor assembled at sales during the 1920s and 1930s were mainly housed at the armory he built at his penthouse in the Clarendon Building in New York or at St Donat s Castle and are not described here 297 Ms Levkoff previously the Director of Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Art was appointed Museum Director at Hearst Castle in 2014 299 Morgan s nomination was supported by Dianne Feinstein Maria Shriver Michael Graves Robert Venturi and Frank Gehry 302 Morgan shunned publicity disliked being photographed particularly after an operation on her ear in 1932 left her face somewhat disfigured 304 and did not give press interviews enter architectural competitions or write articles publicizing her work Dismissing these activities as suitable only for talking architects 305 she wrote my buildings will be my legacy they will speak for me long after I m gone 306 References Edit National Register Information System National Register of Historic Places National Park Service January 23 2007 a b Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument Office of Historic Preservation California State Parks Retrieved April 14 2014 a b c d Crabtree 2011 p 88 Wilson 2012 Frontispiece a b Wadsworth 1990 p 95 a b Fravel Laura May 24 2013 Hearst s Other Castle North Carolina Museum of Art a b Loe 1994 p 49 a b Murray 1995 p 36 Kastner 2009 p 18 Eargle 2008 p 213 Coffman 1985 p 13 Coffman 1985 p 12 Kastner 2009 p 22 Loe 1991 p 7 Loe 1994 p 14 a b c Kastner 2009 p 12 Coffman 1985 p 23 a b c d Wilson 2012 p 105 Coffman 1985 pp 22 23 a b Levkoff 2008 p 72 Kastner 2009 pp 25 26 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 13 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 11 Boutelle 1995 pp 169 170 Hearst Castle History People and Art Hearst Castle Retrieved February 10 2019 a b Levkoff 2008 p 57 a b c Wilson 2012 p 106 Wilson 2012 Introduction Boutelle 1995 p 23 Boutelle 1995 p 30 Loe 1991 p 9 Wilson 2012 p 7 a b Hewitt 1990 p 280 Boutelle 1995 p 42 Kastner 2009 p 42 Loe 1991 p 36 Murray 1995 p 41 Procter 2007 p 47 Loe 1991 pp 36 39 Julia Morgan Collection Robert E Kennedy Library Cal Poly Retrieved November 4 2019 Scoggins Herring Kaylee August 15 2016 Mr Hearst and Miss Morgan Robert E Kennedy Library Cal Poly Kastner 2000 p 32 Aidala 1984 p 101 Murray 1995 p 19 Thorndike 1978 p 335 Wadsworth 1990 p 90 Clarke 2012 p 127 Lough 2015 p 194 Gilbert 1976 pp 346 347 Murray 1995 pp 23 24 Kastner 2000 p 129 Loe 1994 p 85 Kastner 2000 p 157 Murray 1995 pp 59 63 Kastner 2000 p 125 a b Kastner 2000 p 130 Murray 1995 p 63 Murray 1995 p 125 Kastner 2000 p 127 Kastner 2000 pp 127 128 a b Wiencek amp Lucey 1999 p 293 Loe 1994 p 93 Kastner 2000 p 128 Kastner 2000 p 163 Murray 1995 p 50 Pizzitola 2002 p 430 Fiore Faye October 31 1993 Obituary Revives Rumor of Hearst Daughter Hollywood Gossips in the 1920s speculated that William Randolph Hearst and mistress Marion Davies had a child Patricia Lake long introduced as Davies niece asks on death bed that record be set straight Los Angeles Times Reeves Phil November 1 1993 Birth of a rumour is laid to rest The Independent Archived from the original on November 3 2012 Retrieved July 30 2022 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint unfit URL link Kastner 2009 pp 124 125 Feuerherd Peter April 29 2017 Why William Randolph Hearst Hated Citizen Kane JSTOR Daily a b Alberge Dalya March 28 2016 Scale of Hearst plot to discredit Orson Welles and Citizen Kane revealed The Guardian Allen Nick January 23 2012 Citizen Kane feud between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst thaws after 70 years The Daily Telegraph Archived from the original on February 27 2012 William Randolph Hearst stops Citizen Kane ads History com Retrieved November 4 2019 Higham 1971 p 9 Kastner 2000 p 193 McBride 2013 pp 40 42 Houseman 1972 p 444 Carringer 1985 pp 117 118 a b Sight amp Sound The 50 Greatest Films of All Time British Film Institute Retrieved November 4 2019 30 years ago Orson Welles ashes interred in Spain Wellesnet May 7 2017 Chawkins Steve January 23 2012 Citizen Kane gets inside the castle Los Angeles Times Procter 2007 p 175 a b Kastner 2009 p 185 Procter 2007 p 213 Levkoff 2008 p 130 Coffman 1985 p 67 a b Wilson 2012 p 109 Procter 2007 p 239 Kastner 2009 p 195 Aidala 1984 p 229 Procter 2007 p 242 Wilson 2012 p 197 Levkoff 2008 p 144 Loe 1991 p 48 State Park Notes Planning and Civic Comment 24 3 58 September 1958 Retrieved February 14 2019 The Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument was dedicated and opened to the public June 2 a b c d e f Levkoff 2008 p 68 Filming Locations for Stanley Kubrick s Spartacus 1960 in Spain and California The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations Retrieved December 8 2018 Pemberton Patrick S Tanner Kathe October 16 2015 Emails reveal confusion over Lady Gaga s video shoot at Hearst Castle San Luis Obispo Tribune Archived from the original on July 24 2016 Retrieved November 21 2022 250 000 Demanded From the Hearsts Under Bomb Threat The New York Times February 14 1976 a b c Kastner 2009 p 118 Howells Robert Earle March 15 2019 As Hearst Castle turns 100 visitors roam freely San Francisco Chronicle Staff reporters August 5 2019 Amanda Hearst gets married at the famed Hearst Castle in San Simeon over the weekend KSBY News Reynolds Christopher October 16 2020 COVID Home Improvement comes to California s most famous mansion Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on October 6 2020 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint unfit URL link California State Parks to Reopen Hearst Castle on May 11 Hearst Castle Retrieved July 26 2022 a b Boutelle 1995 p 175 a b Aslet 1990 p 234 Mendoza 2021 frontispiece Mendoza 2021 p 15 Aidala 1984 p 40 a b c d Loe 1994 p 12 Polyzoides Sherwood amp Tice 1992 p 20 a b c Boutelle 1995 p 177 Gellner amp Keister 2002 p 13 Murray 1995 p 1 Procter 2007 p 136 a b Wilson 2012 p 115 a b Procter 2007 p 94 Kastner 2000 p 91 a b Wadsworth 1990 p 74 a b Wadsworth 1990 p 78 Kastner 2009 p 112 Kastner 2009 p 115 Kastner 2009 p 116 Loe 1991 p 13 a b Boutelle 1995 p 178 a b Wilson 2012 p xi Fourie amp Trujillo 2008 p 7 Kastner 2000 p 97 Boutelle 1995 p 180 Thorndike 1978 p 329 Murray 1995 Preface Kastner 2009 p 199 Aidala 1984 p 216 de Moubray 2013 pp 137 143 Boutelle 1995 p 214 Kastner 2009 p 53 Kastner 2009 p 187 a b Coffman 1985 p 55 Kastner 2000 p 202 a b c d Facts and Stats Hearst Castle Retrieved February 8 2019 Loe 1994 p 83 Coffman 1985 p 25 Coffman 1985 p 52 Kastner 2009 pp 52 53 Wilson 2012 p 114 a b Murray 1995 p 105 Coffman 1985 p 41 Coffman 1985 p 35 Aidala 1984 p 116 a b Wilson 2012 p 118 Kastner 2000 p 208 Levkoff 2008 p 60 a b Kastner 2000 p 68 Kastner 2000 p 102 Wilson 2012 p 124 Boutelle 1995 p 190 Kastner 2000 p 132 Boutelle 1995 pp 190 192 a b Boutelle 1995 p 193 a b Kastner 2000 p 140 Kastner 2000 p 134 Murray 1995 p 111 a b Loe 1994 p 61 Aidala 1984 p 103 Aidala 1984 pp 54 55 Loe 1994 p 84 Kastner 2009 p 123 Loe 1994 p 73 a b Coffman 1985 p 74 Kastner 2000 pp 46 50 Procter 2007 p 145 a b c d Levkoff 2008 p 59 Loe 1994 p 86 Coffman 1985 pp 55 56 Murray 1995 p 115 Levkoff 2008 p 187 Aidala 1984 p 130 Loe 1991 p 21 Murray 1995 p 118 Levkoff 2008 pp 57 60 Kastner 2000 p 112 Boutelle 1995 p 196 Kastner 2000 pp 111 112 Coffman 1985 p 77 Thorndike 1978 p 328 Levkoff 2008 p 186 Kastner 2000 p 142 Coffman 1985 p 80 Aidala 1984 p 85 a b Loe 1994 pp 58 59 Kastner 2000 p 138 Procter 2007 p 123 Murray 1995 p 143 a b c d e Wilson 2012 p 129 Boutelle 1995 p 198 a b c Kastner 2000 p 147 a b Levkoff 2008 p 64 Loe 1991 p 28 Loe 1994 p 62 Wilson 2012 p 130 Murray 1995 p 135 Murray 1995 p 16 Kastner 2000 p 151 Murray 1995 p 138 Coffman 1985 p 85 Murray 1995 p 145 Everingham 1981 p 13 a b c Everingham 1981 p 58 Loe 1991 p 29 Aidala 1984 p 108 Murray 1995 p 124 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 54 Loe 1994 p 30 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 17 Aidala 1984 p 105 a b Boutelle 1995 p 206 Staff reporters November 9 2008 LACMA reunites treasures from William Randolph Hearst s famed collection ArtDaily Harris 2007 p 219 McMurry 1999 pp 35 37 Nasaw 2001 p 404 Barry Leighton September 2 2015 Heartless tycoon tears down our priory to revamp his Welsh castle Swindon Advertiser Retrieved March 29 2018 Aslet 1982 p 209 Aidala 1984 pp 117 122 Levkoff 2008 p 73 William Randolph Hearst Archive Long Island University Artstor www artstor org Retrieved February 10 2019 Seely Jana The Diverse Collection of William Randolph Hearst www go star com Southeastern Antiquing and Collecting Magazine Retrieved February 7 2019 Levkoff 2008 p 63 Larkin 2015 p 3 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 25 Loe 1991 p 18 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 51 Bothmer 1957 p 165 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 59 a b Bothmer 1957 p 167 Everingham 1981 p 35 Levkoff 2008 p 71 Loe 1991 p 26 Everingham 1981 p 59 a b c d Loe 1991 p 22 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 55 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 57 Levkoff 2008 p 135 Blomberg 1988 Preface Levkoff 2008 p 172 Burt 1977 p 394 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 47 Everingham 1981 pp 28 29 Loe 1991 p 25 Loe 1991 p 23 Loe 1994 p 57 Kastner 2000 p 109 Coffman 1985 p 47 Staff reporters March 9 2018 Sunlight helps identify 17th Century painting at Hearst Castle BBC Tanner Kathe March 6 2018 Mystery of Hearst Castle painting solved San Luis Obispo Tribune Kastner 2009 p 108 Boutelle 1995 p 188 Kastner 2000 p 93 Kastner 2000 p 62 Kastner 2009 p 68 Kastner 2009 p 96 a b Loe 1994 pp 66 67 Loe 1994 p 68 Tanner Kathe May 29 2018 Hearst Castle s Neptune Pool will be filled this summer for the first time in years San Luis Obispo Tribune Tanner Kathe October 21 2018 Hearst Castle gala celebrates reopening of Neptune Pool San Luis Obispo Tribune Brown Patricia Leigh October 23 2018 Taking a Dip in History A Pool Party at Hearst Castle The New York Times Neptune Pool Repair California Preservation Foundation Retrieved August 28 2019 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 21 Kastner 2009 pp 201 202 Hearst Castle Pools Neptune Pool and Roman Pool Hearst Castle Retrieved March 6 2019 Wilson 2012 p 116 a b Kastner 2000 pp 175 177 Loe 1994 p 71 Kastner 2000 p 177 a b Loe 1994 p 31 Boutelle 1995 p 200 Loe 1994 p 81 Kastner 2000 p 106 Hearst Castle map and directions Hearst Castle Retrieved February 14 2019 Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument California State Parks Retrieved February 14 2019 Kastner 2009 p 10 Chawkins Steve September 11 2008 Overnight stay at Hearst Castle for sale on eBay The Seattle Times Kastner 2009 p 146 Bevan Nathan August 2 2008 Lydia Hearst is queen of the castle WalesOnline O Toole Garson December 26 2014 This just shows what God could do if He had money Quote Investigator Retrieved March 26 2023 Madigan Nick September 20 2004 Hearst Land Settlement Leaves Bitter Feelings New York Times Tanner Kathe December 21 2009 Hearst Ranch land deal will have a long impact San Luis Obispo Tribune Kastner 2000 p 13 Marter 2011 p 483 Kastner 2000 p 124 Wodehouse 1983 p 139 Steinbeck 1939 pp 281 282 Kastner 2000 p 188 Winslow amp Frye 1980 p 32 Rybczynski 1989 p 93 Constable 1964 pp 139 140 Kastner 2000 pp 214 215 Levkoff 2008 p 54 Levkoff 2008 p 22 Hearst Castle Selects National Gallery s Curator for Museum Director Hearst Castle hearstcastle org Retrieved November 4 2019 Levkoff 2008 pp 13 14 Drueding Meghan 2015 Ahead of Her Time Julia Morgan National Trust for Historic Preservation Nomination papers of the AIA Gold Medal PDF AIA Retrieved March 23 2023 Jacobs Karrie December 12 2013 Julia Morgan posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal Architect The Journal of the American Institute of Architects Boutelle 1995 p 232 Boutelle 1995 p 16 Wadsworth 1990 p 121 Ferreira Gabby March 7 2019 Hearst Castle architect Julia Morgan finally gets a NY Times obituary 62 years after her death San Luis Obispo Tribune Norwich 1993 Foreword Kastner 2000 p 221 Sources EditAidala Thomas 1984 Hearst Castle San Simeon New York Harrison House OCLC 731420004 Aslet Clive 1982 The Last Country Houses New Haven US and London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 02904 8 1990 The American Country House New York Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 04757 8 OCLC 22342371 Blomberg Nancy J 1988 Navajo Textiles The William Randolph Hearst Collection Tucson Arizona University of Arizona Press ISBN 978 0 8165 1467 0 von Bothmer Dietrich March 1957 Greek Vases from the Hearst Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin March 1957 165 180 Retrieved February 23 2019 Boutelle Sarah Holmes 1995 Julia Morgan Architect New York London Abbeville Press ISBN 978 0 789 20019 8 OCLC 877447659 Burt Nathaniel 1977 Palaces for the People A Social History of the American Art Museum Boston Little Brown and Company ISBN 978 0 316 11785 2 Carringer Robert L 1985 The Making of Citizen Kane Berkeley California University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 20567 3 OCLC 925334492 Clarke Peter 2012 Mr Churchill s Profession Statesman Orator Writer London Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 1 408 81887 9 OCLC 813834249 Coffman Taylor 1985 Hearst Castle The Story of William Randolph Hearst and San Simeon Santa Barbara California Sequoia Communications ISBN 978 0 866 79022 2 OCLC 886313320 Constable William George 1964 Art collecting in the United States of America An outline of a history London Thomas Nelson OCLC 804260639 Crabtree Cheryl 2011 Northern California 2011 El Segundo California Fodor s ISBN 978 1 400 00503 1 Eargle Dolan H 2008 Native California An Introductory Guide to the Original Peoples From Earliest to Modern Times San Francisco Trees Company Press ISBN 978 0 937 40111 8 Everingham Carol J 1981 The Art of San Simeon Introduction to the Collection Santa Barbara California Haagen Printing ISBN 978 0 960 69960 5 Fourie Denise Trujillo Catherine 2008 Guide to the Camille Solon Drawings Collection 1900 1952 California Polytechnic State University Gellner Arrol Keister Douglas 2002 Red Tile Style America s Spanish revival architecture New York Viking Press ISBN 978 0 670 03050 7 Gilbert Martin 1976 Winston S Churchill 1922 1939 Authorised biography of Winston S Churchill Vol V London Heinemann OCLC 715481469 Harris John 2007 Moving Rooms The Trade in Architectural Salvages New Haven US and London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 12420 0 Hewitt Mark Alan 1990 The Architect amp the American Country House 1890 1940 New Haven US and London Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 04740 0 OCLC 442679431 Higham Charles 1971 The Films of Orson Welles Berkeley California University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 02048 1 Houseman John 1972 Run Through A Memoir New York Simon amp Schuster OCLC 463094615 Kastner Victoria 2000 Hearst Castle The Biography of a Country House New York Abrams Books ISBN 978 0 810 93415 3 OCLC 906879446 2009 Hearst s San Simeon The Gardens and the Land New York Abrams Books ISBN 978 0 810 97290 2 Larkin Catherine 2015 The William Randolph Hearst Archive An Emerging Opportunity for Digital Art Research and Scholarship PDF Long Island New York Long Island University Levkoff Mary L 2008 Hearst the Collector New York Abrams Books ISBN 978 0 810 97283 4 OCLC 804275809 Loe Nancy E 1991 Hearst Castle The Official Pictorial Guide San Rafael California Aramack ISBN 978 0 944 19714 1 1994 Hearst Castle An Interpretative History of W R Hearst s San Simeon Estate Santa Barbara California Companion Press ISBN 978 0 944 19746 2 OCLC 750727216 Lough David 2015 No More Champagne Churchill and His Money London Head of Zeus Ltd ISBN 978 1 784 08182 9 Marter Joan M 2011 The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art Oxford UK Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 195 33579 8 McBride Joseph 2013 What Ever Happened to Orson Welles A Portrait of an Independent Career Lexington Kentucky University Press of Kentucky ISBN 978 0 81314 595 2 McMurry Enfys 1999 Hearst s Other Castle Bridgend Wales Seren Press ISBN 978 1 854 11228 6 OCLC 41396927 Mendoza Ruben G 2021 The Spanish Style House From Enchanted Andalusia to the Californian Dream New York Rizzoli ISBN 978 0 847 86516 1 OCLC 1143615933 de Moubray Amicia 2013 Twentieth Century Castles in Britain London Frances Lincoln Publishers ISBN 978 0 711 23178 8 Murray Ken 1995 The Golden Days of San Simeon Los Angeles Murmar Publishing ISBN 978 0 385 04632 9 Nasaw David 2001 The Chief The Life of William Randolph Hearst Boston Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN 978 0 618 15446 3 Norwich John Julius 1993 Great Residences Illustrated Perspectives on Power Wealth and Prestige London Mitchell Beazley ISBN 978 1 857 32082 4 OCLC 29596614 Pizzitola Louis 2002 Hearst over Hollywood power passion and propaganda in the movies New York Columbia University Press p 430 ISBN 978 0 231 11646 6 Patricia Van Cleve Hearst Polyzoides Stefanos Sherwood Roger Tice James 1992 Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles New York Princeton Architectural Press ISBN 978 0 910 41353 4 Procter Ben 2007 William Randolph Hearst The Later Years 1911 1951 New York Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 195 32534 8 Rybczynski Witold 1989 The Most Beautiful House in the World New York Viking Press ISBN 978 0 670 81981 2 Steinbeck John 1939 The Grapes of Wrath New York Viking Press OCLC 981334514 Thorndike Jr Joseph J 1978 The Magnificent Builders and their Dream Houses New York American Heritage Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 828 13064 6 Wadsworth Ginger 1990 Julia Morgan Architect of Dreams Minneapolis Lerner Publications Company ISBN 978 0 822 54903 1 Wiencek Henry Lucey Donna M 1999 America s Great Houses Washington National Geographic Society ISBN 978 0 792 27424 7 OCLC 40609228 Wilson Mark Anthony 2012 Julia Morgan Architect of Beauty Layton Utah Gibbs Smith ISBN 978 1 423 63654 0 OCLC 966008538 Winslow Carleton M Frye Nikola L 1980 The Enchanted Hill The Story of Hearst Castle at San Simeon Los Angeles Rosebud Books ISBN 978 0 865 58003 9 OCLC 718340532 Wodehouse P G 1983 P G Wodehouse Five Complete Novels New York Avenel Books ISBN 978 0 517 40538 3 Further reading EditJulia Morgan s Nomination for the 2014 AIA Gold Medal Lewis O 1958 Fabulous San Simeon a history of the Hearst Castle a Calif state monument located on the scenic coast of Calif together with a guide to the treasures on display San Francisco California Historical Society Boulian D M 1972 Enchanted gardens of Hearst Castle Cambria Calif Phildor Press Martin C 1977 Hearst Castle mythology legend history in art Cambria Calif Galatea Publications Morgan J Hearst W R amp Loe N E 1987 San Simeon revisited the correspondence between architect Julia Morgan and William Randolph Hearst San Luis Obispo Calif Library Associates California Polytechnic State University Blades J Nargizian R A amp Carr G 1993 The Hearst Castle collection of carpets fine rug reproductions Santa Barbara Calif Jane Freeburg Kastner V 1994 Remains to be seen remains of Spanish ceilings at Hearst Castle San Simeon CA Hearst San Simeon State Historic Monument External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hearst Castle Official website Portals California Architecture Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Hearst Castle amp oldid 1147309896, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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