San Simeon, CA
Today I headed north on a portion of Highway 1 that I hadn’t seen yet as I made my way to Hearst Castle at San Simeon. I had arrived at Hearst Castle one day last week, coming down Highway 1 from Santa Cruz but I lollygagged so long on the way down that I was too late to take any tours of the castle that day. This time I booked two tours for today on line to be sure I could see what I wanted to see, The Grand Rooms (which I’d seen on a previous visit, but I wanted to see them again), and one called Cottages and Kitchen, which also included the wine cellar.
To back up a step, Hearst Castle, as it is referred to now, was commissioned by newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst working with accomplished architect Julia Morgan. It wasn’t even 2015 and he chose a woman! Hearst grew up in a priviledged household, but he also went on to amass a fortune himself and built what was at the time the largest newspaper publishing business in the world. He was also keenly interested in politics having been twice elected to the US House of Representatives. You may recall it was his grandaughter, Patricia Hearst, who was kidnapped by, and then joined, the Symbionese Liberation Army in the 1970’s.
Building started in 1919 on 240,000 acres above San Simeon which is about half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Hearst told Morgan that he wanted to build a small 3 room cottage at the top of the hill they had camped on for years near San Simeon. He referred to it as “the ranch”. Talk about “scope creep”. It was never actually finished as he still had plans for more additions which he didn’t ever get around to building.
There is the main house (Casa Grande) consisting of 115 rooms, 3 guest cottages (the largest has 8 bedrooms and is 5350 sq. ft.), and a total of 56 bedrooms, 60 bathrooms, two pools (one indoor and one outdoor) and 41 fireplaces. In Casa Grande, the main rooms are the Refectory (reception room) billiard room, movie theater, library, a gothic study, beauty salan, butlers pantry, kitchen staff dining room, and a huge basement under it all which included the wine cellar.
The two guides were both outstanding and not only knew their stuff, but presented it in an interesting way. As we asked questions, each of them became more animated and we got some great stories from them aside from the facts and figures. Basically if you were anyone in the 1920s and 30s you were invited out to “the ranch” for a weekend or evening. Some of the names I recall are Cary Grant, Harpo Marks, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill, Howard Hughes, John Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Pickford and lots of others.
On my way back to Avila Beach I stopped for lunch at a nice beach community along the coast, just south of San Simeon called Moonstone Beach. I sat on the patio once again, of a restaurant called Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill enjoying the warmth and sunshine and then a walk on the beach. It’s a lovely spot and there are many small and great looking motels, inns, and cottages right across the road from the boardwalk overlooking a typical wide long beach. There were lots of surfers out, but really not a lot of challenging waves.
Lois' Adventures 