San Simeon

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Former estate of William Randolph Hearst in southern California. It was built on a vast private estate of 245,000 acres (99,000 hectares), developed in the 1860s by Hearst's father. In 1919 – 20, with the architect Julia Morgan, Hearst began construction of a complex of luxurious buildings and gardens to serve as a country house. The main residence, later called Hearst Castle, is a Spanish Renaissance building with 150 rooms, a cathedral-like facade, and two bell towers. Lavish interior decorations were obtained from European churches and palaces. The site's embellishment continued (1919 – 48) with numerous subsidiary buildings, Mediterranean gardens, statuary, pools, fountains, a pergola, and priceless art treasures collected from all over the world. The complex is now a state historical monument.

For more information on San Simeon, visit Britannica.com.

San Simeon, the publisher William Randolph Hearst's estate, was designed by architect Julia Morgan. It is situated on the central coast of California, in the Santa Lucia Mountains, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Beginning in 1919 and for the next thirty years, Hearst spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing a Mediterranean-style village, with swimming pools, tennis courts, and a full-sized zoo, enclosed within a working cattle ranch. The focal point of the estate was Casa Grande, or the "castle," and three guest villas, with 165 rooms in all. During the 1920s and 1930s Hearst's guests at San Simeon included movie stars, Hollywood producers, publishers, world leaders, and politicians.

Bibliography

Kastner, Victoria. Hearst Castle: The Biography of a Country House. New York: H. N. Abrams, 2000.

Nasaw, David. The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

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Temperature: 32°F / 0°C RealFeel Temperature™: 35°F / 1°C Humidity: 100% Winds: CLM 0 mph / 0 kmh Pressure: 29.98"

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Wednesday		HI:  59°F / 15°C LO: 47°F / 8°C
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Saturday		HI:  61°F / 16°C LO: 48°F / 8°C
Sunday		HI:  59°F / 15°C LO: 49°F / 9°C

"San Simeon" redirects here. For other uses, see San Simeon (disambiguation).

San Simeon (ZIP Code: 93452; area code 805) is an unincorporated settlement on the Pacific coast of San Luis Obispo County, California. Its position along State Route 1 is approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, each of those cities being roughly 230 mi (370 km) away. A key feature of the area is Hearst Castle, a hilltop mansion built by William Randolph Hearst in the early 20th century that is now a tourist attraction. Prehistorically the local area was inhabited by the Chumash people, who settled the coastal San Luis Obispo area approximately 10,000 to 11,000 BC, including a large village to the South of San Simeon at Morro Creek.^[1]

Geology

San Simeon also refers to some geologic structures of the local area, particularly elements of the coastal Jurassic Age landforms and ophiolite mineral formations of this region.^[2]

References

1. ^ C.Michael Hogan (2008) Morro Creek, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham [1]
2. ^ James E. Wright, John W. Shervais (2008) Ophiolites, Arcs, and Batholiths: A Tribute to Cliff Hopson, Geological Society of America, ISBN 0813724384, 572 pages

Coordinates: 35°38′38″N 121°11′23″W / 35.64389°N 121.18972°W / 35.64389; -121.18972

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