‘I love this Ranch.’ New Hearst Castle project highlights voices from estate’s history
Wouldn’t it be fascinating to sneak into the hearts and minds of the rich and famous and find out what really makes them tick?
That’s what Hearst Castle guides are now sharing with the public: excerpts from letters, oral histories and telegrams about eccentric, powerful media magnate William Randolph Hearst and his stunning San Simeon estate, Hearst Castle.
Those excerpts, presented as part of the Voices from the Past program, offer glimpses into the Castle’s genesis and creation. They’ve been popping up in monument staffers’ inboxes since April and are now available via social media.
According to Cara O’Brien, interpretive program manager for the State Parks district that includes the Castle, the concept was first suggested about a year ago in a series of staff meetings. At first, the plan was to send a quote each morning to every staff person.
“This was before COVID-19,” she said, “when we could have not predicted the immense value these small and many times humorous rays of sunshine from a century ago would bring to staff.”
After the coronavirus pandemic shut down the Castle in March, those glimpses of the past “became a wonderful way to keep spirits up,” said Dan Falat, superintendent of the San Luis Obispo Coast District.
“My staff comes up with phenomenal ideas! I loved that one,” Falat said.
Now anyone with a digital device can enjoy those historical tidbits.
Even though Hearst Castle remains closed to on-site tours with no reopening date in sight, Falat said, “Our guides can still share the Castle, still inspire, still educate and teach” via social media.
“It’s about how this dream was built, the interaction, the involvement that Hearst had in it,” he said. “It truly was his dream, and it was phenomenal.”
Recently, quotes to, from and about Hearst have been cropping up on Fridays on the Castle’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Each excerpt is lovingly located and selected by concept instigator Debra Mendenhall, a longtime Castle guide supervisor, and then posted courtesy of special event coordinator Aja Milne.
On Facebook, there are also Throwback Thursday comparisons of historic and current photos of Castle objects, and Ceiling Saturday postings of pictures and trivia about some of the outstanding overhead artworks at the monument.
Posts also include videos, conversation-starter poll questions, collection highlights and Today in History factoids.
William Randolph Hearst deeply involved in building of estate
Hearst Castle is known around the world as a soaring hilltop compound packed with art and history.
It’s also the source of some funny, insightful, quirky stories about Hearst, his genius architect Julia Morgan and the team of notable experts, engineers, artisans and craftspeople who helped turn their vision into reality.
Few would guess how deeply Hearst immersed himself in the creation of his Central Coast estate — or that his observations, comments, suggestions and complaints would include the kinds of minute details that probably would have normally been overlooked by the owner of such a vast, far-flung media empire.
Hearst’s dream was to create a compound that would be visited by his peers: movie stars, writers, artists and other notable people.
He, Morgan and their team made that dream happen on the same hilltop where, as a child, young Hearst often camped with his wealthy parents, Sen. George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst.
Phoebe Hearst never got to see La Cuesta Encantada, the lavish estate her son and Morgan created on the family’s Camp Hill site high above San Simeon. However, her influence can be felt throughout the manor, which includes 58 bedrooms, 41 fireplaces and more than 80,000 square feet in the La Casa Grande main house and three guest houses, plus two grand pools that hold a total of 550,000 gallons of water.
The Voice from the Past excerpts illustrate what William Randolph Hearst’s thoughts and hopes were during the decades of construction at Hearst Castle, a building project that still wasn’t complete when the media giant died in 1951.
Letters, telegrams offer ‘embarrassment of riches’
Mendenhall has worked at the Castle for 33 years, rising from guide trainee to her current position, which includes her treasured tasks of recruiting and training new guides.
Voices from the Past has become one of her favorite assignments, she said by phone.
With Hearst archives at the Castle and Cal Poly’s Robert E. Kennedy Library collection, “including transcripts for thousands and thousands of letters and telegrams between Hearst, Morgan and others, we have an embarrassment of riches that almost no other historic home has,” she said.
Those riches include “so much of what they thought at the time,” Mendenhall said. “Hearst was a good writer, a good wordsmith. He could be very funny, and the documents show his exuberance and his frustrations” about his massive project.
Some of those frustrations “were largely brought on by himself,” she said her research has shown, as he added, removed and modified and elements.
“He’d complain that money was getting stretched too tight,” and order that some people be fired to reduce costs, Mendenhall said. “Then two weeks later, he’d say ‘I want to get things done, hire them back.’ ”
The documents also provide “some insight into Miss Morgan’s personality,” Mendenhall said, and the friendship and mutual respect she and Hearst had for each other. “It was a really incredible, respectful and fruitful relationship.”
The guide supervisor said that the two “just really liked each other and were truly equal in that relationship.”
“He had more say about what was going to get done, but if she didn’t like it, he’d defer to her,” Mendenhall explained. “‘We’ll do what you think is best,’ he’d say.”
Social media posts give glimpses into Hearst Castle’s past
In a Facebook post on Oct. 9, Mendenhall quoted Morgan, who wrote to Hearst in 1923 about “standing far down the hill, imagining the unfinished towers of Casa Grande, and enjoying the ‘looming up’ effect they would have.”
Morgan “pondered how to impart this effect to arriving guests and proposed a way to do this with the placement of driveways and steps. She remarked, ‘a strikingly noble and “saisissant” (striking) effect would be impressed upon everyone on arrival.’ ”
Hearst wrote in the margins of that letter later, “Heartily approve these steps. I certainly want that ‘saisissant’ effect. I don’t know what it is but I think we ought to have at least one such on the premises.”
A Sept. 11 post quoted Thaddeus Joy, Morgan’s chief architectural draftsman, designer and representative. In the spring of 1923, after consulting with Hearst on the decoration of Casa Grande’s façade, Joy wrote to Morgan that “Mr. Hearst thinks the facades are much overloaded with ornament and that a liberal use of an eraser is of primary importance.”
A Sept. 4 post quotes Hearst’s best friend, Orrin Peck, who wrote to Morgan that “Mr. H has bought many wonderful things ... You will be delighted with the stuff — quite a museum full — I should hate to foot the bill.”
Mendenhall said that “it was never expressly the intent behind creating Hearst Castle, but the thought that a museum was being created was ever present due to the sheer amount of things W.R. bought.”
On Sept. 15, she noted on Facebook that “Most of Mr. Hearst’s guests were adults, but when celebrity photographer James Abbe and his wife paid a visit (around 1936), they brought their three children: Patience, Richard and Johnny.
“The kids wrote a story about their experience, which was published in 1937 as a book titled ‘Of All Places!’ They remembered Mr. Hearst this way:
‘Mr. Hearst is no sissy, because he has a real ranch road. Dirt.’
‘Mr. Hearst ... is a very quiet man. He does not say very much but listens to what you say.’
‘At dinner... Mr. Hearst sat at the middle of the long table and spoke kindly to all ... He seems to enjoy food.’ ”
Perhaps the most well-known quote from Hearst was in a 1916 letter to his mother about Camp Hill.
“I love this Ranch,” he wrote. “It is wonderful. I love the sea, and I love the mountains and the hollows in the hills and the shady places in the creeks and the fine old oaks and even the hot brushy hillsides full of quail and the canyons full of deer. I would rather spend a month here than any place in the world.”
For more, go to www.facebook.com/hearstcastle or www.instagram.com/hearstcastleshm.
Want to be a Castle guide?
Hearst Castle is recruiting to fill guide trainee positions that would typically average about 1,500 hours per year.
According to postings on the Castle’s Facebook page and Craigslist, “Hearst Castle is currently temporarily closed. However we are still recruiting in anticipation of our eventual reopening. … Applicants should enjoy speaking before large groups, leading tours through historic sites, and be available weekends, holidays and summers.”
Those interested should attend one of the 90-minute informational workshops being offered at the Hearst Castle Visitors Center in San Simeon on Oct. 25 and 26 and Nov. 8 and 9. Social distancing and face coverings will be required during the workshop, which will be limited to nine participants per session.
For details or an appointment, call 805-927-2085.
