William Randolph Hearst, Newspaper editor, art collector and lord of a private museum. When he started building in 1919, the plans looked quite different then from what his house looks like now. His architect, Julia Morgan, one of the first female architects, was always changing her plans according to his changing mind. The rose garden that was never actually a rose garden, but was instead substituted for a large outdoor pool. The pool was enlarged and changed three times. And the layout was shifted to accommodate the statues and roman ruins arriving from Europe.

The ranch is situated on the highest most central peak in San Simeon, California. Giving a view of the coast as well as the lighthouse, and anything within 40 kilometres from all directions. Hearst wanted to be able to see all that he owned. Most of the animals in the private zoo roam the land, such as indigenous and foreign grazing animals as well as wild tropical carnivores. A two and a half kilometre pergola hugs the hill and weaves past many of the animal shelters. Beautiful grapevines and fruit trees caress the pergola as well as dot the landscape.

The ranch has 168,000 square feet and is artistically filled with all of Hearst’s most prized possessions, his antiques and art collection. Collecting has been his passion since he was a boy. Tapestries, statues, paintings, Persian carpets, lamps, urns, you name it. An Egyptian statue is slightly out of place, but defiantly antique. It dates back to more than 3500 years ago. The entire residence is the perfect showcase for his renascenc mind.

Hearst certainly knows the meaning of expensive taste, 24-karat gold tiled floor in the indoor pool. Gold gilded ceilings and mouldings in the guesthouses. Guest houses that the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Bob hope, Winston Churchill, and Marilyn Monroe enjoyed, as well as countless others who came to visit during the summer weekends. Even children sometimes came with their famous parents to enjoy his summer home.

Unfortunately, Hearst left his castle, as the locals call it, for the last time. A stroke this past summer forced him to the city hospital. He was insistent on returning. However, another stroke prevented that. The doctors have concluded that it is unsafe to ever return again. All though it has been nearly two decades since Hearst started building, he claims it still unfinished. No doubt it will never be fully satisfactory to Hearst’s ever changing mind.