Hearst Castle

Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for 'The Enchanted Hill'), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947. Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.

George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre (63 sq mi) estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth. Soon after the death of his mother, Phoebe Hearst, in 1919, William Randolph commissioned the architectural pioneer Julia Morgan to build "something a little more comfortable up on the hill", the genesis of the present castle. She worked in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years; the castle was under almost continual construction from 1920 until 1939, with work resuming after the end of World War II until Hearst's final departure in 1947.

Originally intended to be a family home for Hearst, his wife Millicent and their five sons, by 1925 Hearst's marriage was effectively over and San Simeon became the home of him and his mistress, the actress Marion Davies. Their guest list included many of the Hollywood stars of the Roaring Twenties; Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable all visited, some on multiple occasions. Political luminaries encompassed Calvin Coolidge and Winston Churchill while other notables included Charles Lindbergh, P. G. Wodehouse and Bernard Shaw.

Text adapted from “Hearst Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Hearst Castle ranks #110 of 2,438 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #3 of the 31 mapped in United States. Founded 1919 — one of 69 atlas entries founded in the 20th century. See how United States compares in the castle statistics.

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