Hearst Castle stands on a hilltop above San Simeon on California's central coast, built in stages between 1919 and 1947 for the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst to a design by the architect Julia Morgan, one of the first prominent female architects in the United States. The main house and its surrounding guesthouses combine Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architectural elements with an extensive collection of art and antiquities Hearst imported from Europe, including entire historic ceilings and doorways and a Moorish-style outdoor swimming pool lined with imported marble. Construction stretched across nearly three decades and was still incomplete when Hearst's declining health forced him to leave the property permanently in 1947, meaning the estate as built never fully matched Morgan's or Hearst's original combined vision. The Hearst family donated the estate to the State of California in 1957, and it now operates as a state historical monument open to public tours, showcasing both its architecture and Hearst's extensive art collection.
Facts
Building Type LocationSan Simeon, California, United States 1 Completed Year Completed Year Classification
Standing Status Building Type
Building Type (category) Connections
Has Building Type
Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.
In Style
Source Wikidata: Hearst Castle
Source Wikipedia: Hearst Castle
Uses Element
Source Wikipedia: Hearst Castle
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Hearst Castle
Infobox, type
Mansion
Infobox, location
Near San Simeon, California, United States
Infobox, completed
Completed: 1947
Entity description and the lead/infobox of the Wikipedia article
Hearst Castle stands on a hilltop above San Simeon on California's central coast, built in stages between 1919 and 1947 for the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst to a design by the architect Julia Morgan, one of the first prominent female architects in the United States. The main house and its surrounding guesthouses combine Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architectural elements with an extensive collection of art and antiquities Hearst imported from Europe, including entire historic ceilings and doorways and a Moorish-style outdoor swimming pool lined with imported marble. Construction stretched across nearly three decades and was still incomplete when Hearst's declining health forced him to leave the property permanently in 1947, meaning the estate as built never fully matched Morgan's or Hearst's original combined vision. The Hearst family donated the estate to the State of California in 1957, and it now operates as a state historical monument open to public tours, showcasing both its architecture and Hearst's extensive art collection.
- In Style: Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture, infobox architectural_style field: Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, other late 19th and 20th century revival styles
Uses Element: Stone, Wikipedia article
As elsewhere, the core construction material is concrete, though the façade is faced in stone.
View the Source2. Wikidata: Hearst Castle
- Wikidata Q378143, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
- Wikidata Q378143, P571 claim (w-bbfill-artsarchag-0926)
- In Style: Mediterranean Revival Architecture, Infobox style field: Spanish Colonial Revival, Mediterranean Revival, other late 19th and 20th century revival styles
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