Hearst Castle is reopening — with new tour based on trailblazing architect Julia Morgan
When Hearst Castle reopened on Wednesday, visitors had a chance to take a new Julia Morgan tour that highlights features of the architect’s work that have never been seen by the public before, along with other areas that were only shown in passing.
It’s a special opportunity for both Castle fans and those new to the lavish estate to dig deeper and learn more about what motivated, excited and inspired the Castle designer — as well as her wealthy client of nearly three decades, media magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Dan Falat, superintendent of the California State Parks district that includes the Castle, said he and his approximately 200 staff members are “excited to bring this new tour to the public” as part of a somewhat delayed centenary celebration.
On the tour, guests learn “about the talented woman behind this iconic mansion that continues to reveal its history 100 years later,” he said.
The Morgan tour was originally intended to be part of a 2020 celebration honoring her and marking a century since construction began at the San Simeon hilltop. Then the pandemic hit, and State Parks stopped giving tours.
Now, the public is back on the hill, and is being given the additional opportunity to learn more about the Castle and its creators.
Some who got a sneak peak at the Julia Morgan tour and a visitor-center display said both were profound and touching.
State Parks Director Armando Quintero said during an April 27 historic-preservation awards ceremony that when he’d seen those, “it felt like I was sitting in the room with Julia Morgan ... like she’d just finished her sketches, left them on the table and left the room.”
He described his visit as “an extraordinarily personal experience.”
What was Morgan’s impact on Hearst Castle design?
During her years creating Hearst Castle, Morgan was the estate’s architect, decorator, designer and more.
In one way or another, she had a hand in just about everything on the hilltop, including the rooms and buildings, zoo enclosures, art displays and landscape plans, three iterations of the much-photographed outdoor Neptune Pool (now 345,000 gallons) and all the massive buildings now identified worldwide as Hearst Castle, a historical monument and house museum.
It was an enormous undertaking. The four main buildings, based on 16th century Spanish Renaissance architecture and Mediterranean designs, encompass 80,000 square feet, 41 fireplaces, 60 bathrooms and 58 bedrooms (38 of them in the main house, La Casa Grande).
Morgan, a California native, was the first licensed woman architect in the state, the first woman to graduate from the architecture program at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, first U.S. woman to head up her own office and the creator of more than 700 projects throughout her career … reportedly nearly 200 more than her nearest competitor, Frank Lloyd Wright.
When she was in Paris, her father Charles Morgan told her to “just show ‘em what an American girl can do.” So she did.
But it’s taken years for his daughter’s contributions to be recognized or even acknowledged.
Julia Morgan’s name and influence weren’t even mentioned on tours during the early years of state ownership, and guides then were taught little or nothing about her.
New tour is self-guided, covers architect’s office
Because the Julia Morgan tour has no set itinerary, people experiencing the two-hour, $100-per-person, semi-private adventure, can, in a sense, customize their visit by selecting highlighted areas and features that intrigue them.
With a maximum of eight participants per tour, the customization can be wide ranging.
Some of the areas included in the tour are the lower North Duplex area of the main house, the “new” wing that was never finished and the covered-over, and the never-finished “Hidden Terrace” that’s now lit for better viewing and accented by interpretive panels, drawings, pictures and details about Morgan’s family.
According to retired Castle museum director Hoyt Fields, State Parks unearthed the terrace in 1977, about 20 years after the estate was opened to the public. Officials needed to check the area because they were concerned about the stability of the North Terrace above the hollowed-out area.
The Hidden Terrace area was subsequently featured briefly on the Castle’s garden tour.
The new tour also showcases a small, dark-stained board-and-batten structure — an unprepossessing redwood room, almost like an afterthought, backyard shed — which was for years the on-site working space for Morgan as she plied her craft, skills and talents for the legacy property she and Hearst created together.
Fields said the building had originally been placed on skids, so it could be shunted around to wherever the construction focus was at the time. The small office structure now shares part of the cement back wall of La Casa Grande’s kitchen.
The architect’s office was tiny but mighty, just like the woman who occupied the structure when she was on the hilltop.
It had barely enough room for her simple, slanted-top drafting table, a hanging rack and under-table storage for plans, plus Morgan’s plentiful drawings and sketches, all illuminated by lovely northern light that flowed through four six-paned windows.
In many ways, that office was the center of the bustling activity that turned a rural summit high above San Simeon (which had been Hearst’s beloved “Camp Hill” campsite) into one of the most celebrated historic house museums in the world, the lavish estate that Morgan and Hearst usually called “The Ranch.”
According to most accounts, they were an eccentric, effective, evenly matched, non-romantic couple of friends.
In Victoria Kastner’s new book, “An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect,” she quoted Hearst son, W.R. “Bill” Hearst Jr. as saying that the diminutive Morgan in her modest, understated but tailor-made suits was “always prim and proper … (but) underneath that impeccable attire and highly professional air was a steel-trap mind and a will of iron.”
“I used to listen to her and the old man go at it in her small office at the top of the hill,” he said. “She and Pop had some real squawks, let me tell you, but both were so formal and low-keyed that an outsider would hardly have noticed.”
In her egalitarian office, Morgan also dealt regularly with her hard-hatted construction crew members plus all the artisans who were narrowly and deeply devoted to whatever craft was their specialty.
The architect was also known for scampering up wobbly scaffolding that could strike terror into strong men, and for the way she kept her modesty intact while doing so: She wore men’s trousers under her suit skirt.
Today while peering in one of Morgan’s office windows (the building is too small and fragile for tour takers to go inside), the viewer can almost feel the power that had been exerted within, always with equal measures of dignity, manners and determination.
Listening closely, one could imagine echoes of Morgan firmly but politely telling her crew that Hearst was making yet another design change.
“No,” she might have said, “we have to rip that out and put something else in … and you’re going to enjoy doing it.”
How to reserve spot on Julia Morgan tour
For reservations for the Morgan or other Castle tours (including the semi-private “Art of San Simeon” and “Hearst & Hollywood” tours), go to www.reservecalifornia.com or call 800-444-4445. Reservations can be made up to 56 days in advance.
COVID-19 precautions would be observed according to the state guidelines in effect at the time. To be sure what the latest protocol is for your visit, check the website right before it or on that date.
Castle officials warn that pent-up demand means some tours may fill up quickly, especially on weekends and holiday periods, so planning ahead is advisable.
David Middlecamp contributed to this story.
This story was originally published May 9, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
