The famous publisher William Hearst, “The greenest” skyscraper and castle in California. Part 2

Hearst Empire. Part 1

Hearst Corporation is one of the largest diversified media companies in the world. The corporation now includes about 200 separate businesses. Each day, nearly 20,000 people are at work at Hearst.  

     The founder of the corporation is William Randolph Hearst. He built the nation’s largest newspaper chain, his methods deeply influenced American journalism. He was a multi-millionaire  and a son  of a millionaire. A new building for Hearst corporation was built  in 2008 on the top of the old one,build on 1928. It is located near Columbus circle  and Central Park . 

     Hearst mother  left  him the family’s fortune, which included a 168,000-acre ranch in San Simeon, California half way between Los Angeles and  San Francisco.  Hearst spent his child years there and loved the place and built a castle on the lot of more than 15 square miles.

His  original idea was to build a bungalow, according to a draftsman who recounted Hearst's words from the initial meeting: I would like to build something upon the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I'm getting a little too old for that.

     Construction started in 1919 and continued through 1947. There are 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms and  19 sitting rooms, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield, and the world's largest private zoo in the castle - so it is not a bungalow at all!

     The castle was designed by architect Julia Morgan - the first female graduate of the prestigious  "Ecole Des Beaux Arts"  in Paris. She was the first woman architect licensed in California. She started on the castle in 1919 and ended only by Hearst's declining health in 1947.   During her 45-year career, she designed more than 700 homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores, and educational buildings. Julia wrote: ”Never turn down a job because you think it’s too small;  you don’t know where it can lead.”

     One of the highlight of the estate is the outdoor Neptune Pool, located near the edge of the hilltop. The Neptune Pool patio has an ancient Roman temple front ( not a copy!) , transported from Europe and reconstructed at the site.  The pool the holds 345,000 gallons of water and includes the oil burning heating system.

A tiled indoor Roman pool is styled after an ancient Roman bath. Hearst was affected by the beauty of the mosaics in the 5th Century Mausoleum in Ravenna, Italy and implemented  similar styles into his pool.

     Eight marble statues, decorating the pool, were carved starting in 1930 by Italian Sculptor  and are the  copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues. Hearst spent millions of dollars expanding the property, building a Baroque-style castle, filling it with European artwork, and surrounding it with exotic animals and plants.

     The Hollywood and political elite often visited the castle. There is a small private  airport   at the bottom of the hill. Guests also could take a private Hearst-owned train car from Los Angeles.  Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, Clark Gable, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were among Hearst's guests.

   In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to the state of California. Hearst Castle became a United States National Historic Landmark on May 11, 1976.  The site attracts about one million visitors per year and you can become one of them.  I was there several years ago. Believe me - it’s amazing!

     When Randolph Hearst left his castle for health reasons, he moved into this Beverly Hills mansion that girlfriend Marion Davies purchased for him in 1946.  The house has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, its own cinema and a nightclub. Hearst  spent there the last twenty years of his life. John and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed in this house for their honeymoon.

     The property was briefly listed at $165 million in 2007, and in  2012 price was  $95 million.

     According to the LA Times, the Beverly House’s 4th and current owner, attorney-investor Leonard M. Ross, purchased the mansion over 30 years ago. Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Ross has run into recent financial difficulty and he filed for bankruptcy on May 2013.   Estate is  on the market for  $117.5 million. Anyone interested?

Visit Hearst Castle in California

The Hearst Empire, “The greenest” skyscraper and castle in California. Part 1

Hearst Empire. Part 2

The Hearst Tower, home for the headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, is located at 300 West 57th Street, near Columbus Circle in Midtown Manhattan. It is was the first "green" high rise office building in New York, and the first skyscraper built after  9/11/2001. The founder of the corporation William Randolph Hearst built the nation’s largest newspaper chain. He is considered to be the father of the “yellow” press and had an extraordinary estate sitting on more than 150,000 acres in between Los Angeles and San Francisco with it's own airport and a zoo.  

     The tower on 57 has 46 stories and uncommon triangular framing pattern.  It was built in 2006 on the top of the six-story base completed 78 years  earlier, in 1928. The building was considered the best world sky scrapper of the year 2006  and received the prestigious annual  Emporis Skyscraper Award.

     The old building, designed by architect Joseph Urban, was completed in 1928 and was named “The International Magazine Building”. At that time Hearst owned 12 magazines. From the beginning, the building was structurally reinforced for an office tower.  Plans were filed in 1946, but never executed. The original building has cast stone façade with limestone columns and allegorical figures representing music, art, commerce and industry.  

    Hearst Tower is one of the most environmentally friendly office towers in New York City and is among the top 10% of energy-efficient buildings in the nation. The roof collects rainwater, reducing the amount of water dumped into the City's sewer system during rainfall by a quarter .90% of the Tower's structural steel contains recycled materials. Light sensors inside control the amount of artificial light on each floor, based on the amount of natural light available at any time. The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. The building is naturally ventilated for up to three quarters of the year.

     William Hearst was born in California in 1863. His father was a California Gold Rush multimillionaire. William   was taught in private schools and attended Harvard College.  Later William run his father’s newspaper “San Francisco Examiner”. He upgraded the equipment and hired the most talented writers of this time, including Mark Twain and Jack London. In 1891 his father died, and Hearst inherited   about $15 million dollars ( half of his father’s estate).

     During his college years Williams was inspired by the well-known publisher Joseph Pulitzer and later he bought his newspaper New York Morning Journal  in 1895. This was the beginning of  Hearst Empire.

     William Hearst dominated journalism for nearly a half century. As an editor,  Hearst adopted a sensational brand of reporting later known as "yellow journalism".  Wardman, the editor of   New York Press, was the first to publish the term but he had never defined the term exactly. In 1898 the paper simply elaborated: "We called them Yellow because they are Yellow".

The term was widely popular at the late nineteenth century during the battle between “New York World” by Joseph Pulitzer's and William Randolph Hearst's “New York Journal” .

    The unproved information about the reason of the explosion on the battleship “Maine” and a private letter, published by Hearst,   could be one of the stimulus for a Spanish American War at the end of XIX century.  However, after the war started,   Hearst sailed to Cuba as a war correspondent and provided accurate information about the war.  Four days after the tragedy (more than 250 sailors were killed) , Hearst's New York Morning Journal called for a public collection for a monument to honor the sailors. The monument stands on the Columbus Circle, half a mile from the Hearst Tower. You can read more about the monument in one of my previous  posts.

     In the beginning of the XX century Hearst entered politics.  Hearst did win election to the House of Representatives in 1902 and 1904 and  spent more than  2 million dollars for United States presidential election in  1904.

     By the 1920s, one in every four Americans read a Hearst newspaper. Media empire had grown to include 20 daily and 11 Sunday papers in 13 cities. Hearst  and his empire were at their zenith.

     The Great Depression hit Hearst hard and he was forced   to sell the Washington Times and merge most of his remaining papers late in the decade. Exploring other emerging non-print media, Mr. Hearst began acquiring radio stations in the 1920s. In 1948, he became the owner of one of the first television stations in the country. William Hearst died in 1951 at age 88.

"Citizen Hearst," a documentary about the 125-year-old Hearst Corp. and founder William Randolph Hearst had world premier  at the 2012 Hamptons International Film Festival .

Books about Hearst from Amazon:

William Randolph Hearst: The Later Years, 1911-1951

The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph