| A visit to Hearst's Castle |
| William never stopped collecting. San Simeon gave him the opportunity to indulge another of his passions – collecting live animals. William had the compound at the top of the hill enclosed by a high fence and filled the area with grazing animals. He had giraffes, zebra, African antelope of several variety as well as kangaroos, North American elk and lots of others. In addition to grazing animals he had a collection of carnivores in well-designed enclosures along the road. Most of the animals were given away to various zoos after William’s death but several of his zebra escaped and can be spotted mixed with the cattle on the hillsides surrounding the estate.
The castle is actually made up of the main building of several architectural styles, and three cottages. At least one of the cottages was the first built, so as to provide William a place to stay while the main house was being built. The cottages are of a Mediterranean style and at first glance the main building resembles a Spanish church. When William died, none of his heirs showed much interest in his stuff or in the castle. So, the whole compound, lock, stock and barrel was turned over to the State of California. California has turned it into a state park - A very profitable state park. Hearst Castle is only one of the two state parks that pay their own way. California has been able to build and impressive support building at the bottom of the hill that includes: ticket sales, cafeteria, gift shop, museum, theater, and a restoration work shop in support of the castle. In addition, the state has a fleet of buses to ferry visitors to the top of the hill up the narrow, winding road. When we first moved to Morro Bay, visiting Hearst Castle was not one of our first priorities. Over the last years we have had several opportunities to tour the castle and by order of William when he last left the castle, his last statement was “don’t change anything until I get back”. Our joy now is to share this beautiful place with our friends and there was bound to be an appropriate occasions. In February the visit of my sister and then my two aunts provided the opportunity to visit the castle. Any tour of the castle requires climbing a number of steps. The number of steps is listed in the description (www.hearstcastle.com/tours) of the tours. My sister was the first to visit. Being younger and in better physical shape, we chose the more vigorous, Tour 2, for her and the easier Tour 1 for my aunties. Tour 2 is my personal favorite because because it gets into the upper floors and the personal and business areas of Hearst’s life. Tour 1 focuses on the more public areas. I won’t even attempt to describe the castle because there is a virtual tour available on the website, but there were a couple of interesting things about our visit. |
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| William Randolph Hearst was literally a man that had more money than he knew what to do with and he had a pension for making lots more. He wasn’t particularly a nice man but he was good to his mother and was know to have done some good deeds.
William was the son of George and Phoebe Hearst. George Hearst had attained the rank of US Senator and had acquired a considerable amount of wealth as a mining engineer in Nevada, South Dakota and the World, which he had multiplied by investing in land in Central California. George used this land to raise cattle. George built a family home on his ranch near San Simeon, California. George married late in life and chose as his mate the daughter of his childhood’s friend, Phoebe. The story that is told is that the love of George’s life had been Phoebe’s Mother, but George’s friend beat him to that prize. Phoebe had only one child and that child was William. Phoebe was an outstanding woman. Born and married into money and power, Phoebe spent her life as a philanthropist, feminine activist and attempting to spend at least some small portion of her fortune. Phoebe was closer in age to her son than to her husband. She became his mentor, guide and tutor. They traveled extensively in Europe acquiring vast collections of art and antiquities. By the time that William had reached his majority, he had warehouses houses full of European treasures. Phoebe continued to mentor William throughout her life: guiding his selection of a wife, where he lived, and to a great extent his thought. William was expelled from Harvard just about the time that his father was reputed to have won the San Francisco Examiner in a poker game. George had no use for a newspaper, but William asked that the control of the paper be turned over to him. Through hard work and long hours William made the Examiner successful and after started his publishing empire by next acquiring the New York Journal. He moved to New York and several years later married Millicent – a vaudeville performer. He and Millicent produced five sons. In time Millicent became a valued member of New York – a socialite and philanthropist. Some of William's fondest childhood memories were of the time that he spent on his grandfather’s ranch at San Simeon. San Simeon is and was a unique place. It was extremely isolated and the family home was set near the Pacific coastline. The location near the coast in this part of California is normally cool and foggy for much of the year. The ranch property starts at the surf and quickly raises several thousand feet up the slope of the coastal mountains. During a fair amount of the year the air temperature on this slope is directly proportional to the elevation – summer temperatures on the seashore are typically in the 60’s while the hilltop run in the 90’s. This temperature range happens in a distance of less than a couple of miles. George, William’s father selected a site for his home not on the shore but about a half a mile inland – just at the edge of the “fog line”. It can’t be a complete coincidence that the year Phoebe died that William’s life changed drastically. In 1919 William moved west, became interested in several movie ventures and started the design and building his dream house on the ridge above his fathers house. This “house” remained a work in progress for the rest of his life and was left unfinished at his death. There were several dramatic changes in his life in this era besides the death of Phoebe. Millicent and the boys chose to remain in New York where Millicent was well entrenched in her social life or maybe she was deliberately left behind. William started a lifelong affair with Marion Davies. Ironically, Marion had a similar background to Millicent and when they met, Marion was a showgirl in New York. Another woman to become important was Julia Morgan, who was to become the architect for Hearst’s Castle. Phoebe had been a major patron of Julia Morgan as part of her role as reagent to the University of California at Berkley and had commissioned Julia on several projects both for the University and other ventures. Julia and William started with a fairly simple “house” at San Simeon and over thirty years ended with an unfinished “castle”. Marion Davies’ career as a movie star was helped considerably by the support of William. After moving to the West Coast, they lived together openly and it is rumored that they had a child, Patricia Lake (1923 – 1993) and there are stories that Marion was able to bail out William when he encountered a cash flow problem with the infusion of one million dollars. At William’s death in 1951, Marion inherited William’s entire estate. Marion transferred everything to Millicent and the boys. Hearst Castle was designed and built as collaboration between William and Julia Morgan. Money was simply not a consideration; William’s every whim was accommodated. The house started as a vacation house but William had warehouses full of art, antiques and various collections that needed someplace that they could be displayed. The house was expanded to accommodate these displays and in many cases these antiquities were incorporated into the architecture itself. William had collected ceilings from various European castles and churches that were cut up and fitted into many of the rooms of the Castles. Doors, fireplaces, and wall treatments (such as choir stalls) were integrated into the structure of the house. Many of the rooms were designed to display William’s trophies; the guest library was opportunity to display his collection of “first editions” and ancient Greek vases, the gardens and swimming pools became an opportunity to show his statuary. |
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| Hearst's Castle as seen from the road up from the Tourist Center at the bottom of the hill. |
| As San Simeon became more important to William, it was redesigned and expanded to accommodate the ability to control his entire business empire from that location – this was not easy because of the remoteness of the location. Rooms and offices had to be added to accommodate the necessary staff. Electricity could not be provided by the local public utility and was generated locally. Communications was a top priority, roads added, an airstrip added above the fog line (on a nearby mountain top), and the pier upgraded. William obviously had his own airplanes to ferry mail and passengers to L.A.
During his life at San Simeon the castle was constantly being revised. Large portions were simply torn down and replaced by something better. As an example the tennis courts prove to be an idea place to place the indoor pool. Rather than lose the courts, William simply had the courts jacked up and the new pool built underneath – we’re talking about an Olympic size pool with an eighteen to twenty foot ceiling. A new wing was added late in his tenure but never finished with a slew of new bedrooms primarily to have more space to display more of his collections. |
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| William collected a wide variety of statues and stone work. Most of the collections of paintings books, firesplaces, ceilings, doors, etc cannot be photographed by caual visitor because indoor photography is prohibited. Show here are the "Three graces (outdoor stuff is free game). Most of his wildlife zoo is gone but at least the zebra are still arount and can be seen mixing with the local cattle |
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| (above) one of the three Guest Houses (left) The Main House - the teak area is the added floor to house Hearst's business offices |
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| Baby Elephant Seals - Hanging out on the beach waiting to get hungry enough to venture out into the sea and fend for themselves. |
| By going in February there were no crowds. We pulled into the very large parking lot – it was empty and our first thought was that the place was closed. We parked right in front – it was great. We had no reservation – walked in – paid for tickets and walked into a waiting bus. The flip side of our experience is to try to go during the summer months. Don’t even try to go without reservations and get there early.
During the summer the coastal fog is often on the water and around the visitor center. As you climb to the castle the sky clears and the castle is usually hot. When we were there with my sister the visitors center was clear with a high overcast and the castle was foggy and misty. The Aunties had a clear but very windy day. But, you’re not there for the weather. About eight miles north of Hearst castle, there is a beach that is a mating area for the elephant seals. Elephant seals (particularly the males) are huge. During December though March ths is a must see. The rest of the year there is usually some activity going on and is worth trying. Elepant seals are a deep sea animal but have to come ashore to give birth and mate. The females come ashore pregnate, feed the babies for one month (the babies gain about 30 pounds while their mothers eat nothing), at the end of this time the mothers abandon their babies, mate with the males, and then head out to sea. The babies don’t even know how to swim. So, they just lie on the beach while their bodies develop and they get hungry enough to go to sea themselves. |
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| Nancy and my Aunties poised in front of the Hearst Castle Visitor's Center |