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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy. And today we're

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Speaker 1: going to start with some of the best opening lines

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Speaker 1: for a pole. It's from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan

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Speaker 1: in Santa Do to Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome

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Speaker 1: decree where alf the Sacred River ran through caverns measure

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Speaker 1: list man down to a sunless sea. And while Coleridge

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Speaker 1: may have been high on opium while he wrote this,

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Speaker 1: Zanna Do was a real place. It was the summer

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Speaker 1: castle of Kubla Khan, which Marco Polo visited, but it

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Speaker 1: was also a fictional pleasure palace that you might know

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Speaker 1: as Charles Foster Kane's house in Citizen Kane. And while

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Speaker 1: Orson Wells's version of Sannah Do was compiled from exterior

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Speaker 1: shots of a castle in New York and surrealist Matt paintings,

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Speaker 1: it was meant to be William Randolph Hurst's La Cuista

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Speaker 1: and Cantata, or the Enchanted Hill, which is high above

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Speaker 1: California's specific coast, and Hearst lovingly called it the ranch.

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Speaker 1: It's sometimes called San Simeon, which is also the town

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Speaker 1: where it's located, but we know it best as Hearst Castle.

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Speaker 1: So where did this castle come from? Well, William Randolph

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Speaker 1: Hurst's father, George Hurst, purchased Rancho Piedros Blancas in eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixty five. It had been part of the Mexican Land

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Speaker 1: Grant of eighteen forty, and he later bought the adjoining

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Speaker 1: ranchos Santa Rosa and San Simeon. So when William was

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Speaker 1: in kind of this his middle age, he inherited this

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Speaker 1: enormous estate by this point from his mother. It's two

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty thousand acres and um. By nineteen nineteen

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Speaker 1: he starts construction, which is the same year that he's

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Speaker 1: kind of making his first forays into the movie business,

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Speaker 1: trying to promote the career of his twenty two year

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Speaker 1: old mistress, Marion Dave These. So this is his entry

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Speaker 1: to Hollywood. And the land was originally known as Camp

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Speaker 1: Hill and had been a place for the family to

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Speaker 1: go on camping trips, you know, Mrs Hurst and the boys.

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Speaker 1: Although it's not my kind of a camping trip, it's

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Speaker 1: a little cushier. They've got separate sleeping and dining tents,

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Speaker 1: which actually is my idea of camping. That sounds love like,

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Speaker 1: that's pretty comfortable. But Hurst once more than that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he spends instructions to his architect, Julian Morrigan in nineteen nineteen,

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Speaker 1: Miss Morgan, we are tired of camping out in the

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Speaker 1: open at the ranch in San Simeon, and I would

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Speaker 1: like to build a little something. That's a major understatement,

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Speaker 1: but she spends the next twenty eight years working on

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Speaker 1: the project, which by seven is a complex of one

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five rooms and one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: seven acres of gardens, terraces, pools, and walkways. So before

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Speaker 1: we get into the house, we should talk about the

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Speaker 1: woman who spent twenty eight years of her life working

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Speaker 1: on this project, right, And Julie Morgan is a pretty

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Speaker 1: interesting person. She was born in eighteen seventy two in

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Speaker 1: San Francisco at a little, small, sickly child, but she

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Speaker 1: sneaked into her brother's gym and exercised, and she was

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Speaker 1: very well educated by her well to do parents. As

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Speaker 1: a teen, she spent the summer with her New York relatives,

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Speaker 1: and that's when she first discovered her love of architecture

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Speaker 1: when she visited the office of Pierre Lebroun, who was

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Speaker 1: her cousin's husband. She likes the drawing, she likes the designs,

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Speaker 1: and she thinks, hey, maybe that could be for me. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So she attends UC Berkeley and studies civil engineering, and

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Speaker 1: her senior year she meets Bernard maybeck Um, who, by

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Speaker 1: the way, is an interesting character himself. He wore Greek

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Speaker 1: robes and had a waste long beard. But after graduation

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Speaker 1: she studies architecture with him privately, and by eighteen ninety

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Speaker 1: six she goes to Paris and starts preparing for exams

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Speaker 1: to enter the Ecole de boz arts Um. She has

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Speaker 1: to take the test a few times um most people do,

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Speaker 1: but she ends up being the first woman enrolled in

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Speaker 1: their architecture section and graduates in nineteen o two. And

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Speaker 1: she took a lot of trips in Europe while she

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Speaker 1: was there to study classical architecture, and she wanted to

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Speaker 1: sketch a lot of these gorgeous buildings because she couldn't

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Speaker 1: always afford the books she needed. Yeah, so she really

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Speaker 1: learns a lot about classical architecture, and she returns to

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Speaker 1: California and becomes the first woman again uh to be

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Speaker 1: granted an architect's license in the state. Go Julia Yeah

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Speaker 1: and her. She eventually establishes her own practice, and it

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Speaker 1: really takes off after the San Francisco earthquake of nineteen

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Speaker 1: o six. For one thing, you can imagine there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of buildings that need to be rebuilt, but

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Speaker 1: also some of her earlier designs had weathered pretty well.

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Speaker 1: She had been using reinforced concrete, so it wasn't all

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Speaker 1: um crumbled from the earthquake, right. And her connection to

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Speaker 1: the hers starts with Phoebe Hurst, who's really involved in

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Speaker 1: the YWS. This is William Randolph hurts mother, right, And

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Speaker 1: it's not like she was just working on the Hearst

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Speaker 1: Castle during this twenty eight years. We want to make

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Speaker 1: that clear because she's also working with other clients and

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Speaker 1: on other projects for the Hearsts, like the Hacienda in California,

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Speaker 1: wind Tune fairy Tale Houses in Northern California's so pretty

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Speaker 1: Google image that one. There's a Hopie residence of the

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Speaker 1: Grand Canyon Um. She does the Los Angeles Examiner Building,

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Speaker 1: several of William Randolph Herst, Beverly Hills Residences and Marian

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Speaker 1: Davies Beach House in Santa Monica. But yeah, like like

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Speaker 1: we said, she's also got other clients. So when Hurst

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Speaker 1: eventually loses a lot of his money later in life,

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Speaker 1: it's not like she's out of work. She's got a

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Speaker 1: successful business side. She was a smart cookie. But we

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Speaker 1: we wanted we're here to talk about her most famous project,

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Speaker 1: which is the Hearst Castle. So Hurst was really into

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Speaker 1: collecting art and antiquities, and it's something that had appealed

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Speaker 1: to him ever since he visited Europe with his mother

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Speaker 1: at age ten. He been interested in art history. So

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Speaker 1: whatever he built, it wasn't just going to be a

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Speaker 1: little something like he sent in that telegram to Morgan.

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Speaker 1: It was gonna be a museum for his art and

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Speaker 1: statutory tapestries and pottery, and also a place to display

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Speaker 1: these architectural elements that he had accumulated. And this is

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Speaker 1: big stuff. It's not it's not little pictures to hang

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Speaker 1: on the wall. Now we're talking entire ceilings, ceilings and

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Speaker 1: doors and even temples. So he's got to have a

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Speaker 1: place to integrate all of the things that he's collected,

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Speaker 1: and Sarah had found a really cool New York Times

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Speaker 1: article that called his home cinematic because it's not arranged

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Speaker 1: as a whole. There's not one huge idea that all

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Speaker 1: of the rooms sort of play into. It's more like

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Speaker 1: you walk into one room and it's Gothic, and you

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Speaker 1: walk into the next room and it's very Renaissance. So

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Speaker 1: more like a series of vignettes. And it's um that

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Speaker 1: makes sense when you consider he's building it to house

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Speaker 1: his collections and to display them, so he's got all

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Speaker 1: this different stuff. It's going to end up looking very diverse.

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Speaker 1: But let's talk about the biggest part of the house,

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Speaker 1: which is the main house, La Cassa Grande, sixty tho

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Speaker 1: square feet and it's built in a Mediterranean Revival style. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: as are the three guest homes, which are called cottages,

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Speaker 1: and that must be very ironic because they're each mansions

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Speaker 1: in their own right. But the Casa Grande has thirty

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Speaker 1: eight bedrooms in forty one bathrooms, and it's probably most

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Speaker 1: distinctive feature is the Spanish towers, like a Spanish cathedral.

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Speaker 1: It's you can see it up on the on the

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Speaker 1: hillside when you drive by, and there are even rooms

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Speaker 1: in the towers, the hexagonal celestial suites as they're known.

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Speaker 1: One was a favorite of Clark Gable and Carol Lombard,

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Speaker 1: and they could take up to these eighteen huge bells

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Speaker 1: above them, which I think might be kind of terrifying,

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Speaker 1: were wonderful. Um. A lot of the rooms had the

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Speaker 1: antique cofford ceilings, like we were talking about, Oriental carpets

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Speaker 1: and the colorful tapestry hangings on wood paneled walls, and um.

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Speaker 1: A lot of the decorative elements originated from Spain or Italy,

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Speaker 1: which played into that Mediterranean revival theme. Hurst was trying to.

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Speaker 1: I don't think he was a big fan of the

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Speaker 1: Spanish mission style, UM, but he wanted to stay true

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Speaker 1: to the California look and not you know, not go

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Speaker 1: completely off course. UM. But every week railroad cars would

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Speaker 1: come in with different things. It wasn't all just from

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Speaker 1: Spain or Italy. He would have, UM, Flemish tapestries and

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Speaker 1: antique French furniture as well as the Roman temple fragments

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Speaker 1: and the ceilings from Italian monasteries. UM. So all of

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Speaker 1: the even just imagine and trucks coming up the hill

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Speaker 1: with just overflowing luxuries. But despite this ornate setting in

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Speaker 1: this ornate building that he had, he maintained a surprisingly

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Speaker 1: casual atmosphere. He really liked this idea of it being

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Speaker 1: a ranch. So you know, the refectory table, which is

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Speaker 1: in this lovely gorgeous room that looks like it should

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Speaker 1: be in a monastery, is set with paper napkins and

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Speaker 1: bottled ketchup. Yeah, like it's a campsite. And he has

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Speaker 1: this really impressive collection of ancient Greek pottery, some of

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Speaker 1: it is from eight hundred BC, and it's arranged among

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Speaker 1: his books like you or I would put little knickknacks

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Speaker 1: like postcards or something on our bookshelves. It's not it's

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Speaker 1: not set up like a museum now, but it is

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Speaker 1: this gorgeous setting and it's perfect for entertaining. And Hurst

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Speaker 1: entertained a lot of people, including some of the shining

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Speaker 1: star names Lionel and John Barrymore, Harley Chaplin, Gary Cooper, Clark, Gable,

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Speaker 1: Greta Garbo, Carrie Grant, and Harpo Marx. And probably his

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Speaker 1: most famous guest was Winston Churchill. And by the time

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Speaker 1: Churchill was visiting. Hurst and his wife Millicent were estranged.

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Speaker 1: She was tired of him carrying on this very open

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Speaker 1: affair with Marion Davies and had moved to New York.

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Speaker 1: But she she made sure to come home when when

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Speaker 1: Churchill was visiting and entertained as as the lady of

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Speaker 1: the house. I was too, but usually it was Davies

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Speaker 1: who was entertaining with Hurst, and they had very elaborate

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Speaker 1: costume parties, including one of the big ones was called

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Speaker 1: the Circus Party, and that was for William Randolph hurst

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Speaker 1: seventy five birthday, and Betty Davis came as a bearded lady,

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Speaker 1: which sounds pretty like a pretty devoted costume. We do love.

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Speaker 1: We can appreciate that. Um. He also has a huge

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Speaker 1: wine cellar. You would think that that a lot of

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Speaker 1: these parties would be very alcohol fueled, but surprisingly they weren't.

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Speaker 1: He was not a big drinker himself. And even though

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Speaker 1: he does have this impressive wine seller which Morgan designs,

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Speaker 1: so it's in compartment, so it's fireproof and theft proof,

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Speaker 1: and he's he's really concerned about theft, by the way,

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Speaker 1: with his with his wine celler, he holds the key

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Speaker 1: even his Butler complains that you have to really order

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Speaker 1: ahead of time because you have to get the master

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Speaker 1: of the house to to get the wine out for you.

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Speaker 1: But there were ways to get around it. If you

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Speaker 1: were David Niven, the English actor who you might know

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Speaker 1: from The Pink Panther. He got in trouble once for

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Speaker 1: bringing in his own liquor and tossing his empties under

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Speaker 1: his bed, which of course was the bed formerly owned

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Speaker 1: by Cardinal reach Lee. But there was a lot to

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Speaker 1: do with the castle. Besides, drink Hurst would actually kick

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Speaker 1: people out sometimes if they were too inebriated. But we're

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Speaker 1: going to go over some of the most famous features.

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Speaker 1: Probably the castle's most famous feature of all is the

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Speaker 1: Neptune Pool. There are actually three pools that were built

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Speaker 1: on site, each successively larger than the last. Because the

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Speaker 1: initial plan was just a little ornamental pool. But in

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Speaker 1: Hurst wrote to Julia Morgan and said, I am sending

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Speaker 1: back the plan of the Temple Garden with the suggestion

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Speaker 1: that we make the pool longer than it is, as

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Speaker 1: long as a swimming pool. Mrs Hurst and the children

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Speaker 1: are extremely anxious to have a swimming pool, so the

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Speaker 1: second version sounds pretty awesome, has a cascade and statues

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Speaker 1: of Neptune in an aread um. But the present version,

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Speaker 1: which was built in nineteen thirty four to thirty six,

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Speaker 1: is pretty amazing. It's a hundred and four ft long

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Speaker 1: fifty eight feet wide, and it holds three and forty

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Speaker 1: five thousand gallons of water. And that's not the only

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Speaker 1: cool thing about it. There's also this oil burning heating system,

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Speaker 1: which Sarah and I liked because it sounds at the

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Speaker 1: same time both so modern and so old fashioned. It

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Speaker 1: sounds very quaint oil burning, but um nice to have

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Speaker 1: a heated pool too, it exactly and picture lots of

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Speaker 1: Vermont marble and four seventeenth century Italian bas reliefs on

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Speaker 1: the sides of the colonnades. Yeah, and of course there's

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Speaker 1: a whole temple thod on one side of the pool.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't want to look at that, if

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Speaker 1: you get tired of the gorgeous temple, you can turn

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Speaker 1: around in the pool and look at a beautiful view

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Speaker 1: of the Pacific. Or if you're more of an indoor swimmer,

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Speaker 1: if the sun is not shining in California, you could

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Speaker 1: change locations and go to the indoor Roman pool, which

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Speaker 1: is also huge one thousand, six hundred and sixty five

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Speaker 1: square feet, and there are eight statues of Roman gods,

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Speaker 1: goddesses and heroes. They're lifeguards watching, but not entirely as helpful.

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Speaker 1: It was probably styled after ancient Roman baths, like the

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Speaker 1: baths of caracalla Um in the mosaics were inspired by

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Speaker 1: fifth century mausoleum in Ravenna. And this is our very,

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Speaker 1: very favorite part of all. It has a traditional marine

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Speaker 1: monster theme and I'm thinking about changing my bathrooms with

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Speaker 1: love to have a marine monster theme in my bathroom.

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Speaker 1: So great. It's decorated floor to ceiling with mosaic tiles,

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Speaker 1: some of them are colored, some of them fused gold inside,

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Speaker 1: and the designs are created by a well known muralist,

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Speaker 1: Kneel Salon. But if swimming is not what you're up to,

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Speaker 1: there's also a zoo, and the zoo at various points

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Speaker 1: had antelope, zebras, camels, llamas, kangaroos, ostriches, EMUs, barbary sheep,

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Speaker 1: Alaskan bighorn sheep. Katie. You want to pick it up? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there are more. We're not done, musk oxen, yaks, giraffes,

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Speaker 1: black bears, grizzly bears, Which bears best, Sarah Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, cougars,

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Speaker 1: chimpanzees orangutangs, monkeys, macaws, can't use swans, storks and an

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Speaker 1: elephant just to round out the cast, so Hers kept

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Speaker 1: a vet on staff, as you would have to if

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Speaker 1: you had all these animals. Most of them, or at

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Speaker 1: least the grazing type, just kind of went around in enclosures,

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Speaker 1: but there were you know, he didn't let the bears

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Speaker 1: roam their property and like eat Charlie Chaplin or something.

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Speaker 1: But by nineteen thirty seven he started losing a lot

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Speaker 1: of money and dismantled his zoo. He I think he

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Speaker 1: sold most of them to zoo like public zoos or

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Speaker 1: private collections. But there's still a few animals left, including zebras.

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Speaker 1: Hers castle is famous for um the occasional zebra that

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Speaker 1: strolls by, and if you don't feel like driving to

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Speaker 1: go see those zebras, you could land at the airport,

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Speaker 1: which some very famous people like Sir Charles Kingford Smith,

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Speaker 1: Howard Hughes, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh flew into visit

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Speaker 1: so Herst died in nineteen fifty one, just shortly after

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Speaker 1: this project is officially completed. UM in nineteen fifty eight,

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Speaker 1: his heirs gave a hundred and thirty seven acres of

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Speaker 1: the holdings, including the castle, to the State of California

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Speaker 1: and you as the her San Simeon Historical Monument. And

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Speaker 1: today you can go and tour the castle. I actually

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Speaker 1: really recommend visiting UM the Castle's official site, and you

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Speaker 1: can do three sixty degree tours and to pick through

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Speaker 1: all the rooms. It's really cool. It gives you a

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Speaker 1: good sense of how you install a ceiling from an

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Speaker 1: Italian monastery into your own home. I had so many

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Speaker 1: questions for Sarah about that, like, no, really, once you

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Speaker 1: buy a ceiling, where do you put it? I'd like

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Speaker 1: someone to answer that for me. But it makes sense

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Speaker 1: that they transferred this to the state, just as Zanna

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Speaker 1: do and Citizen Kane shows signs of decay by the

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Speaker 1: By the end of the story, you can imagine it

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Speaker 1: would cost a fortune to maintain a home like this privately. Exactly.

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Speaker 1: So that is the story of Hearst Castle. And this

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Speaker 1: was a listeners suggestion for which we think too. If

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Speaker 1: you have ideas, feel free to email us at History

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Speaker 1: podcast at how step works dot com, and if you'd

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Speaker 1: like to read more about some adulously wealthy residence is

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Speaker 1: go to our homepage and search for top ten most

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Speaker 1: expensive houses at www dot how stuff works dot com.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

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Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

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Speaker 1: out the stuff you missed in History Class blog on

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Speaker 1: the how stuff works dot com home page