Hearst castle is a national historic landmark that features an incredibly huge castle in Central California. It was constructed by architect Julia Morgan but it was William Randolph Hearst who had the money and desire to make this possible. If you like castles, this one is a must see!
This castle is huge inside and out and has many different dynamics to it.
William Hearst was a lover of people, plants and animals. His property, originally owned by his parents, had more than 90,000 square feet in land. When Hearst acquired the land, he decided he wanted to build a zoo, with all types of animals!
A picture of his lion cubs, he loved his animals!
Animals that were native to California and animals that were from all over the world. Lions, bison, zebra, kangaroos, bears, you name it! This man had a vision inside and out.
As far as the castle, every inch has a design.
An intricate design on one of many ceilings!
The walls, the ceilings, the landscape, everywhere and everyplace.
A marble bench!
He incorporated a lot of different ancient cultures into his castle.
Some of this marble was taken out from Greece, and the marble is from ancient Greek times!
There was Spain, France, Italy Greece, Egypt and others incorporated into the castle. Some stones were actually from these countries, and not from modern day but ancient stone that was over 1,000 years old. I believe one rock was 2,000 years old, but I’m not sure. The tour had a lot of information and it was hard to soak it all in!
Egyptian Culture!
He grew up on this land with both of his parents, before it was a castle. There was just horses and camping at this time. Nothing fancy, but they were smart about it. There was a water source I believe four miles away and they had it where the fresh water would come right into their camp.
Property looking into Ocean!
When his father passed away the land still belonged to his mother. William asked his mom for the land when she was still living and she said no because she was afraid he would go overboard with the land. Well when she passed away suddenly from a flu epidemic, she was right. He did not do anything small on this land.
Huge castle, huge garden, huge tennis court, pool (two of them), movie theater, zoo…. He did it all and went all out. I guess a mother always knows her son.
Inside Pool!
When Hearst had guessed over, in which he enjoyed having company, he would invite “guests” over frequently. He just had one request. William announced to his guests that they can do whatever they like during the day whether it be pool, ping-pong, walking around, swimming, whatever, but at the end of the day to have dinner together and go to the theater. That’s right! He also had his own theater.
Where you can watch Hearst’s home movies.
Some of his guests included Charlie Chaplin, Marx Brothers, Joan Crawford, Bob Hope, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Greta Garbo, Cary Grant and so many others. Hearst would make home movies of the guests that would arrive, and you can see these home movies today if you get a tour of this castle. You see the people and the animals that were part of this property.
When Hearst passed away, the animals got donated mostly to zoo’s such as the San Diego Zoo. But some of them are still there today on the land.
The admission for a general tour is 25 dollars. They have several tours a day and they are open seven days a week because of the high demand to see this landmark. People come from all over the world to see just how astounding this castle is. Just in my group alone which couldn’t have been more than 100 people, were from Scotland, Sweden, Australia, and all over the states, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, and others.
The Dining Room!
This castle took approximately thirty years to build. Julia Morgan the architect, started building it in 1919, which is pretty amazing considering women weren’t highly recommended in the work force in those days.
Statues in his garden! And everywhere else for that matter 🙂
She built Hearst a very durable castle. An earthquake happened only a few miles from the castle, and it was a big earthquake! A six pointer if my memory serves me correctly, and it did minimum damage to the castle. Everyone was floored by it!
Such cool flowers!
Flowers here are beautiful!
Hope you enjoyed this article! Hearst loved sharing his castle with his guests and I believe he would be extraordinary happy to know his castle still gets viewed today by thousands of people, and that’s probably just daily! Thank you for reading!
If you want to reserve a spot on their tours, the link is right below.
Gold staircase!
Sincerely,
Shelly/Livingonthedirt
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