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Top 10 Facts about the Hearst Castle

The Hearst Castle is a historic estate in San Simeon, on the Central Coast of California. The Castle was built from 1919 to 1947.

It was commissioned by William Randolph Hearst who was a publishing mogul. He worked closely with a gifted architect Julia Morgan.

This castle remains to be a beautiful tribute to the incredible wealth and extravagance of William Hearst from the 20^th century.

Today, the Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark. It has been under the management of the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument.

As the name of the castle suggests, it was named after its owner and is surrounded by three massive guesthouses.  

Although Hearst intended to live in the castle with his family, he ended up living with his mistress. They lived in the castle throughout its almost 30-year construction. Hearst died in 1951.

Here are the top 10 facts about Hearst Castle.

1. Hearst Castle was designed by a female architect

By the time Williams’ mother, Phoebe Hearst died, he had commissioned Julia Morgan to build a comfortable home up on the hill. This was going to be the start of Hearst Castle.

Julia Morgan was the first female American architect and the first woman to study architecture at the School of Beaux-Arts in Â鶹APP.

She was also the first woman to have her architectural practice in California as well as the first female winner of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

Additionally, she was the first to work in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years. This is one of her best-known works.

2. Furnishings for the Hearst Castle were sourced from all over the world

Hearst and Morgan spent about $6.5 million on construction and an additional $3.5 million on fantastic art and furnishings from all over the world to decorate the rooms.

Morgan used reinforced concrete for the exterior walls which was necessary for the building’s longevity especially because the region is prone to earthquakes.

The courtyard of Hearst Castle is decorated with beautiful sculptures from Egypt. If you go to the pool, you will find Roman columns surrounding it.

Inside the Castle, the rooms have one-of-a-kind Art ceiling murals from Spain. These arts were bought from the firm now known as Sotheby’s.

This was an auction house that sold expensive artworks in the 1920s. the art was considered to be of great historical value.

3. The initial plan for the Hearst Castle was a simple country house

Photo by Dani Lavi 0007 – Wikimedia

Initially, Hearst did not intend to build a castle. He just needed a simple country house for his family.

This changed after he shared the vision of the house with Julia Morgan. They had a simple layout for the family’s old country retreat.

Later, the 250,000 acres of San Simeon coastline was turned into a castle.

Before this, the Hearst family would visit this location for family camping vacations when Hearst was a young boy.

After the passing of his father, Hearst wanted to have something comfortable and permanent on San Simeon hill. He was tired of sleeping in camping tents.

His idea was expanded within a month of sharing this with Julia Morgan. Their next step was to choose the architectural style, and they settled for a Spanish Colonial Revival style.

4. Lots of European architectural designs inspired the Hearst Castle

After settling for the Spanish Colonial Revival Style, Morgan incorporated other styles in the castle.

For example, the main residence, which is the centrepiece of the castle, was designed in the Mediterranean Revival style.

The façade of the building also features a Spanish cathedral with its bell towers and baroque decorations.

The main entrance of the Castle has bas-reliefs of knights, and a sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus perched in a niche over the massive door.

Hearst had a deep appreciation of the Spanish Revival and opted for that instead of the colonial structures he saw in California.

When he was younger, his family made several trips to Europe. He got inspiration from the Iberian Peninsula especially the Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain.

5. Hearst Castle has the world’s largest private zoo

The Hearst Castle is one of the world’s largest private zoos. Although the zoo is today known as the Hearst Garden of Comparative Zoology.

Before, the zoo was maintained by royalty and other wealthy members of society for thousands of years.

Hearst loved animals and entertaining guests, therefore the zoo was perfect to entertain his guests.

There were two separate zoo components; a menagerie of caged animals located a few hundred yards north of Hearst Castle and a large fenced enclosure for 50 different species of herbivores.

While planning the design of the Castle, Hearst mentioned that he wanted his guests to feel like they were driving through a nature reserve of exotic animals.

The animals at the zoo were African and Asian antelope, zebras, camels, sambar deer from India, red deer from Europe, axis deer from Asia, llamas, kangaroos, ostriches, emus, Barbary sheep, Alaskan big horned sheep and many others.  

6. Several guests were entertained at the Hearst Castle

Photo by Dani Lavi 0007 – Wikimedia

Hearst enjoyed entertaining several high and mighty people. Most of his guests were political leaders, cultural icons and Hollywood’s elite.

His mistress, Marion Davis was the hostess at the lavish parties.

The invitations to the party at the castle were open and one would stay for as long as they liked. The guests arrived in planes that landed on the private airfield.

7. Hearst lived in the Castle with his mistress

Hearst originally planned the castle to be home to himself, his wife Millicent and his five children.

Unfortunately, they separated after his affair with Hollywood actress Marion Davies became public.

Millicent never gave him a divorce but left the castle with her children. Hearst was left with Davies with whom they lived together in the castle until his death.

He loved Davies so much that he left her the entire estate. Davies however sold the estate back to the family for just a dollar.

8. Hearst Castle has a private airstrip

The location of Castle is isolated on a hill and it took a lot of trouble to get there. For this reason, since Hearst loved the convenience, he had an airstrip built on his property.

He had 3 runways on a 70-acre field that would accommodate a 747. A private plane also delivered his morning paper every day.

Today, there is a Visitor’s centre at the tiny airport. A mile up from the centre is the Hearst airstrip.

9. The Hearst Castle was donated to the State after Hearst’s death

Photo by Michael de la Paz – Wikimedia

Heart and Davies left the castle in May 1947. This was after Hearst’s health deteriorated. Hearst died 4 years later in Los Angeles.

He left the property to Davies who unfortunately died in 1957. That same year, since the property had been sold back to the Hearst family, they gave it to the state of California.

The castle has since been operated under the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. More than 750,000 visitors annually.

The remaining property, 82,000 acres has been retained by the Hearst family.

10. The Hearst Castle was home to more than 70,000 trees

Hearst loved trees and so during excavation for the castle, he had live trees carefully dug up and transported to a new location on the mountainside.

Further, he and his crew planted 70,000 trees on the property during his years there.

He also planted 7,000 pine trees to block the view of the water reservoir visible from the top floors of his castle. Several of those trees remain standing today.