We have been on the central coast of California for 4 days now. Really love California each time that we visit. Today we toured the Hearst Castle at San Simeon. William Randolph Hearst made his fortune as a publishing magnate and built this mansion on his ranch over a period of 28 years. He lived here occasionally with his companion, Marion Davies, a film star. His wife lived in New York and would not give him a divorce so he and Ms Davies had a romance that spanned 30 years until his death in 1951. The castle is magnificent--Casa Grande (the main house) and three guest houses(each had 6 bedrooms)( We toured the guest house where Bob Hope stayed.) He used the house for entertaining--- flying hollywood stars and important people in his jet for weekend parties here. The house is 1 1/2 miles from the coast and up about 1300 ft in elevation. What fabulous views!!! At one time the family owned 250,000 acres. The family still retains 90,000 and over a 100 acres and the house have been donated to California state parks. He also had a private zoo here and still some of the animals remain. We saw zebras grazing with the cows down by Hwy 1.
The house is surrounded by over 100 acres of gardens with fountains and terraces.
The Neptune pool was enlarged 3 times to accommodate the number of guests. There is also an indoor pool, the reflecting pool.
The view from highway 1.
The main building "Casa Grande"
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