After our late dinner visit with Joey & Sam in Paso Robles we drove to Cambria where we would spend the next two days. Betty forewarned the innkeepers of the Olallieberry Inn of our late arrival and they left a key for us. The B&B is named after the olallieberry which is a berry of unique parentage – mostly blackberry. Check it out on Wikipedia if you want the incestuous details. For my purposes, olallieberries are delicious so I choose to remain non-judgmental about their lineage.
After a brief night’s sleep, we started out early the next morning. We had tickets to tour the Hearst Castle which is just minutes north of Cambria, but a 15 minute drive from the visitor center to the Castle on the top of the hill. The Castle is the second largest private residence ever constructed in the U.S. The Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina is #1. Both residences are architectural testaments to the excessive concentration of wealth in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. At least the Biltmore House was tastefully done. The Hearst Castle is an accumulation of architecturally decorative art (ceilings, doors, mantles, etc.) coupled with traditional artworks (paintings, sculpture, pottery, etc.) purchased by William Randolph Hearst throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East during the 20’s and 30’s. Most (probably all) of his collection would never have been allowed to leave its native land under today’s cultural homeland treasures laws.
Every room in the Castle was filled, floor to ceiling, with art. In fact, the Hearst Castle boasts the greatest collection of historic European ceilings in the world. I found the Castle to be dark and oppressive. I suppose by design to protect the artworks from the light of day.
Hearst also collected wild animals – antelope, zebras, giraffes, polar bears, mountain goats, lions, tigers and bears – oh my, he collected everything. Many of these animals were allowed to roam the thousands of acres surrounding the Castle. Today there are still zebra herds roaming the hills.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the Castle was Hearst’s collaboration with Julia Morgan, the architect. For her time, probably even by today’s feminist standards, Julia Morgan was unusually talented. She was an architect (the first woman architect in California) and a civil engineer, graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1894. She then went on to become the first woman admitted to National School of Fine Arts in Paris. Hearst chose her to design and build the castle because several of the buildings that she designed in San Francisco survived the 1906 earthquake. In the construction of the Castle, Hearst would send Morgan an inventory of the artworks, architectural elements, ceilings, walls, fireplaces, etc. that he had collected on his most recent jaunt overseas. She would then find a way to incorporate as many of them into the Castle as possible. To this day the Hearst corporation has multiple warehouses on both coasts filled with collected items that were never used in the construction of the Castle.
I’ve included a small sampling of the many, many pictures that we took at Hearst Castle so that you can judge for yourself whether William Randolph Hearst had more dollars than sense.
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- This is a Hearst Castle promo photo. It was not this cloudy on the day of our visit and we didn’t arrive by helicopter.
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- The two bell towers of the Hearst Castle
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- The main entrance to the Hearst Castle – Casa Grande. There are three guest houses on the property. Casa del Monte with 4 bedrooms, Casa del Sol with 8 bedrooms, and Casa de Mar with 8 bedrooms. Casa Grande has 38 bedrooms and 42 baths.
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- One of the many walls collected by Wm. Randolph Hearst to decorate his Castle. Every room had a “collected” wall from somewhere.
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- Even though the Castle was in the wilderness during its prime, it was serviced with running water, electricity and phone lines. Hearst ran his publishing empire from this office. His desk is at the far end beneath his portrait.
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- One of the less ostentatious pieces in the Hearst Castle.
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- Another Hearst Castle promo picture. We did not visit on a clear day, nor at sunset. But this give you a sense of the grandeur of the Castle.
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- Ceiling detail from one of the many ornate ceilings in the Castle. Every room had a different ceiling, from a different era, from a different country.
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- The diving platform in the Roman Pool. It sits 3 meters above the surface of the pool. The water throughout the pool is 3 meters deep, but only 2 meters in the alcove pictured. All decorative tiles are 23 carat gold.
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- Another view of the diving platform in the Roman Pool.
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- Yet another view of the Roman Pool.
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- This mosaic is made with 23 carat gold tiles. It lies at the bottom of the Roman Pool. The Roman Pool is the indoor pool at the Hearst Castle.
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- Yet another mosaic from the bottom of the Roman Pool.
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- The ladders and the lamp posts are marble.
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- The outdoor pool – aka The Neptune Pool – at the Hearst Castle.
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- A view of the steps leading from the terrace to the Neptune Pool.
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- A view of the Neptune Pool from the terrace above.
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- Betty on balcony of Casa del Mar
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- Betty standing below the small guest house, with a view of the Castle beyond.
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- Closer view of bell tower
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- The east and west bell towers. The roof of the guest house is in the foreground.
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- A view from below
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- Casa del Sol. 2nd largest guest house with 8 bedrooms.
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- Casa del Sol was Betty’s favorite guest house.
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- Casa del Monte. The smallest of the three guest houses at the Hearst Castle with a mere four bedrooms.
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- A portion of the zebra herd that roams the hills around the Hearst Castle.