When I came to California and started to put together my list of sites to see, one of the possibilities that people kept mentioning to me was The Hearst Castle. Located in a desolate little village about half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco, it was quite a hike and required an overnight stay but was well worth the trip.
I knew I wanted to go so it was a matter finding a time and that opportunity presented itself last week. I had to spend a few days in Chicago and initially thought that my flight was returning on a Friday. I could then get an early start and head north on the 4-5 hour drive. It turned out however, that my flight was returning late Thursday night which meant that I could have gone to work on Friday. In the end, since no one really expected me here at the plant, I only came in for a few hours to have a conference call and headed out around noon.
The drive up north was really one of the highlights of the trip for me. Once you get North of Los Angeles, the scenery and terrain becomes very different from that of Southern California. Instead of large sandy beaches and concrete jungles, you have lakes, cliffs, vineyards, and rolling hills. It reminded me of a cross between Tuscany and the hills of northern England. Since only a hotel room awaited me, I was in no rush and decided to stop a little bit on the way up. First stop was at Pismo beach which is really a vehicular recreation area. Essentially, people can take their cars right on the beach and camp. Just south is a sand dune preserve. Unfortunately, it was too far south to walk to and from what I understand a bit dangerous because there are Hummers and Dune buggy’s flying all over the place.
After a brief stop in Pismo, I went up to San Luis Obispo which is the home CalPoly University. It is definitely a college town with your typical downtown of shops and a few restaurants. I ended up eating at a decent BBQ place and taking a brief drive through the campus before heading north up to San Simeon.
San Simeon is a small village that was really established to help support the construction of The Hearst Castle. Nearly all of the land surrounding the estate is still owned by the Hearst Corporation. The Hearst Corporation is still a large force in the publishing industry and publishes magazines such as Redbook and Good Housekeeping among other well-known names. Among those interests is the Hearst Ranch which is utilizes the massive expanse of land surrounding the estate.
W.R. Hearst’s father became one of California’s wealthiest men when he discovered silver in San Simeon hills. He used that wealth to buy a significant amount of land surrounding San Simeon. William would come to fall in love with this land as he began to build his own fortune in Newspapers. During his youth, his mother took him on a trip throughout Europe and this would also have an impact on him. His immense wealth and both his experiences in Europe and his love for San Simeon would eventually lead to the construction of what would become one the most elaborate architectural and artistic projects in the country.
The Hearst Castle would never be a “completed” work as Hearst like to change his mind often. Significant progress started during the 1920’s with the majority of the estate as it sits today being completed in the 1940’s. The cost would be $6 million is construction and $3 million for all of the art. Hearst commissioned a female architect, Julia Morgan, to take on the project in her “spare time”. She would invest a good portion of her time, especially on weekends, to work hand in hand with Hearst to create this elaborate estate. Morgan was famous in her own right getting a degree in Civil Engineering and being the first woman to gain a certificate in Architecture from a famous Parisian school. Morgan was not only the architect but she was also the landscape architect and the interior decorator. It is also known as La Cuentra Encantada (the Enchanted Hill) or as Hearst referred to it, “the ranch”.
In the mid 1950’s Hearst’s estate donated the castle and property (but not the surrounding land) to the State of California which made it into the state’s most successful State Park. People aren’t allowed to roam the estate freely but instead must be accompanied by a guided a tour at all times. As such, they created a Visitor’s Center at the base of the hills where the property is located. You have to take a 5 mile bus ride through the rolling hills to get to the isolated estate – a ride that is really amazing.
I started my day fairly early on the first tour. Essentially, instead of having one comprehensive tour, they break it out into four separate tours (each of which you have to ride the bus back to the Visitor’s Center for). Tour #1 is essentially the introductory tour. Because I started early and the “June Gloom” that plagues California was in full swing, the hillside was covered in fog. While it added a neat effect, it was terrible for pictures. The property essentially consists of about 5 different houses – most of them being guest houses, a recreation area (consisting of tennis courts and a pool), and Casa Grande, the main house. All tours start at the Neptune Pool (which is the well-known outdoor pool) and end at the Roman pool (which is the indoor pool). Tour #1 took you through one of the guest houses and hit some of the major aspects of Casa Grande. Heart wanted to ensure that his construction had the most up to date amenities and technology so not only did everyone have their own bathroom but most bathrooms had showers, not bathtubs (which was a novelty during that time).
Casa Grande is a massive building that was built to mimic a church Hearst saw in Spain. The main entryway led into a huge Assembly Hall where Hearst’s guests would gather before dinner. For me, it was reminiscent of a great hall you would expect to see in Camelot or one of the castles of medieval England. Nearly all of the interior of the castle was decorated to reflect medieval European flair from the paintings to the tapestries, to the woodwork, to the most amazing ceilings I’ve ever seen in a residence. Part of the wall of the assembly area was a doorway that led into the dining room which consisted of a table longer than any I’ve seen. Hearst’s parties were apparently legendary and he hosted a great many people (especially Hollywood-types) at his estate. Surrounding the dining area were flags that represented the different districts of Sienna, Italy.
The dining hall led to a “breakfast room” which was a “small” sitting area that got its name from he window that faced east to watch the sunrise. Nearly all of the views from any window include rolling hillsides. The breakfast room led to the Pool room with two pool tables and mill fleur which was a tapestry that translated to “a million flowers”. These tapestries were owned by only the wealthiest people during medieval times. The Pool room then led into Heart’s movie theatre. It was nearly a full size theatre (at least full size for the 1930’s and 40’s). Heart had married and woman named Millicent and then separated from his wife (very taboo in the day) to spend time with his Hollywood girlfriend, Marion Davies. Hearst owned a movie production studio that would produce all of Davies’ films and he would make his guests watch movies his studio produced when they came to visit.
The Roman pool, the ending point for each tour was pretty neat. It was a heated pool (which was impressive for the 1930’s). For all of its splendor, it was rarely used. Most of Hearst’s guests chose the outdoor Neptune pool. Additionally, most people in the 1930’s didn’t know how to swim so they just hung around poolside. Hearst was known to frequent “local” department stores and buy out their entire swimsuit section for his guests.
After the ride back to the Visitor’s Center, I took in the Hearst Castle movie which was shown in a surprisingly large theatre. It was your standard state park documentary with cheesy actors and a feaux-dramatic story intertwined with historical facts. Overall, not terrible. The funny thing is that they sold the movie on DVD for $30 (that’s $1 per minute) in case you wanted to take it home. After watching the movie, they handed out coupons for 50% off the DVD. Really? What’s the point? Nearly everyone watches the movie that goes there so why not just sell it for the original price? Are people really ignorant enough to think they are getting a “great” deal that will cause them to actually buy the DVD? < /end soapbox>.
I headed back up the mountain for tour 2 which took you through another guest house and back into the main house to see Hearst’s bedroom (which was surprisingly small) and his study. We also saw the massive kitchen which as pretty cool. Hearst never viewed his estate as a hotel and as such, there was no room service. If you wanted something, you had to go to the kitchen to get it. During this tour, there was a couple who brought their two little children on the tour. Now, I don’t have anything against kids. But – you are going to a house filled with priceless heirlooms. There are no ropes separating you from said heirlooms. You are also supposed to stay on a small, special carpeted path because the rugs are older than your great-grandfather. This is not a good recipe for kids, especially kids with ignorant parents. Thankfully, nothing was broken nor were any beds jumped on but lots of things were touched that weren’t supposed to be. After the second tour, the fog began to burn off a little bit and you had better views of the surrounding countryside. We headed back down to the Visitor’s center for an overpriced lunch.
Tour #3 was amusing for me. We got on the bus and as we started the tour, the tour guide (same as Tour #1) looked around and asked, “Does anyone besides this gentleman here speak English?”. One person (out of 20+) raised their hand. Everyone else spoke Chinese only. Essentially, I got a personalized tour which was pretty neat. Of course, the tour was continually interrupted by the tour guide telling the people that they had to stay on the carpet and not touch anything. These people were worst than the children from the previous tour, much to the tour guide’s frustration (and my amusement). Tour #3 essentially focused on all of the bedrooms of the main house which were pretty amazing, especially the rooms in the bell towers.
After a long day of touring, I headed back down to the Visitor’s center to take my leave of Hearst’s Estate. Before driving back to Irvine, I decided to take a quick detour north to see the Elephant seals. About 4 miles North of San Simeon, there is a small beach that is home to quite a few elephant seals. The seals were in their molting stage which meant that they were lazy and looked like they had leprosy. Overall, it was a neat stop, especially as I got to see some seals yell at each other and posture as they tried to find the most comfortable position to loaf and do nothing.
I ended up passing through LA just after sunset and since I had my tripod in my trunk, I stopped at the Griffith Observatory to see the LA skyline at night and ended up getting some awesome night shots in the process.
