Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle sits 5 miles inland from the 101 highway. It is a twisty bus ride up from the visitor's center. George Hearst bought the land when Mexico gave California over to the US for .70cents an acre. He purchased over 250,000 acres. The Castle and all its contents were given to the US government in the 1950s. William Randolf Hearst camped here as a boy all his life and began building the property after his mother died in 1919. The Hearst family still owns 80,000 acres around the Castle and have a working cattle ranch.
The property is made up of 3 guest houses and the main house. Above is Casa Del Sol, view from the garden. The other two are Casa del Mar (the biggest at over 5000 sq. ft and Casa del Monte at 2500 sq. ft. ) The first time you were invited, you were assigned a room, any visit after that, you got to pick your own.

This is the front of Casa del Sol. Not bad for a guest house. Beautiful view of the ocean from here. Bob and Delores Hope stayed here on their honeymoon. There was no eating or drinking in the guest houses or sharing of bedrooms if you were not man and wife. Dolores did not feel comfortable until she reached the Assembly Room and found See's Candy and Magazines.

This is the smallest guest house with a view of the mountains, Casa del Monte. David Niven and Winston Churchill stayed here. Hearst would often have 12-24 guests at any one time. Sometimes you would have a whole guest house to yourself and sometimes you had to share. It was not your choice. Winston Churchill had the entire guest house to himself as he had four people in his party and they each got their own room. (There were also guest rooms in the big house).

The garden was blooming with pink, purple and white. It was so beautiful. The hilltop had a wonderful breeze and the 360 views were amazing.
Here is the front of the big house. There is no grand entrance. The property was only half finish when Hearst left at age 84 due to heart problems. He left so he could be closer to a hospital and doctors. If you were a guest here, you could do anything you wanted all day, but at 7pm you were required to gather in the Assembly room for cocktails and mingling, at 9pm was dinner and then a movie in the theatre around 11pm. If there was no movie, they would go back to the Assembly room, where the furniture would be moved to the sides and dance.

The Assembly Room dressed in it's summer slip covers. The covers are the orginal ones left by the family.

This is the neptune pool. Hearst change this pool three times. He kept it heated and was very disappointed that more people did not swim in it. In the 20's and 30's not many people knew how to swim. Hearst was an avid swimmer and would swim laps.

Loved these lions on the balustrade from the pool terrace to the garden and guest houses.

Beautiful tiles outside the entrance to Casa del Sol.

One of the bell towers of the Great House. Hearst never called this property a castle (he owned a real castle in Wales), to him, it was the "Ranch".
After cocktails, everyone would go into the Reflectory for dinner. He would sit in the middle with Marion Davies across from him. His most recent/interesting guest would be seated along side the both of them. As the days rolled by, the guests would be moved along down the table. When you got to the end, it was time to leave!
He set the table with "Blue Willow" dishes which was very common for that time. They were not expensive. Paper napkins and bottles of ketchup and mustard were on the table. Very casual table. Notice how thin the table is. You would be very close to whoever sat near you. Even though the table was set casually, you were expected to dress to the hilt. Fur coats, jewelry, gloves, hats, and for the men, black tie!


The Theatre is about the size of most new theatres today. These lovely ladies adorned the sides of the theatre in a row from top to bottom. Beautifully classic Hollywood.

Last, but not least, is the indoor pool. Many a midnight rendezvous happened here. Real 14 carat gold tiles from Murano Italy.

We took two tours. The first one was Tour One and was very interesting with a nice overview. The second, was the evening tour, with volunteers dressed in period costume and we saw so much on this tour. I loved it. We went right at sunset and it was a beautiful evening. The volunteers really did add to the ambience. I recommend this to everyone.