Page 678 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - USA

676  C ALIFORNIA

y Hearst Castle®

Perched on a hill above the village of San Simeon and set in
extensive grounds, Hearst Castle® was the private playground
and estate of media tycoon William Randolph Hearst. One of
California’s top tourist attractions, its three guest houses are
superb buildings in their own right, but the highlight of the
tour is the twin-towered Casa Grande® (the “Main House”).
Designed by the Paris-trained architect Julia Morgan and built
in stages from 1919 to 1947, its 165 rooms hold numerous
artworks and epitomize the glamor of the 1930s and 1940s. Casa Grande®
Casa Grande®’s “poured
concrete” façade is in the
Mediterranean Revival style. It
The Theater, the is embellished with ancient
walls of which are architectural fragments.
lined with damask,
has 50 seats. The
lamps inside are held
by gilded caryatids.

William Randolph Hearst
The son of a multimillionaire, W.R. Hearst
(1863–1951) was an ebullient personality who
made his own fortune in magazine and news-
paper publishing. He married Millicent Willson,
an entertainer from New York, in 1903. On his
mother’s death in 1919, Hearst inherited the San
Simeon property. He began to
build the castle and grounds as
. Billiard Room a tribute to his mother, and then
This room features an early lived there with his mistress,
16th-century millefleurs the actress Marion Davies. The
tapestry of a stag hunt. couple entertained royally at
San Simeon over the next
30 years. When Hearst suffered
problems with his heart in 1947,
Portrait of Hearst, he moved to a house in Beverly
age 31 Hills, where he died in 1951.

For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp710–12 and pp713–15

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