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December 8, 2013

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Casa Grande

Facade to the main villa of Hearst Castle at San Simeon state park. Located on the central coast about 30 miles north of San Luis Obispo, this is the former mansion of the late newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. This estate was constructed over a 28 year period, and considered to be the most elaborate estate in the US. According to wikipedia it has 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, and 127 acres of gardens; eptomizing the obscene lifestyle of the extreme upper class.

Hearst acquired his wealth through a large empire of newspapers he grew based on a more sensationalist reporting style, loose with the facts, and high on hyperbole, that early on earned the term: "yellow journalism". One low light of the American press can be exemplified by the Hearst newspaper Mourning Journal. This paper was credited with fueling the Spanish-American war of 1898, blaming the sinking of the US battleship Maine docked in Havana harbor at the time on the Spanish government, without any facts to back up the claim. One can't help but find parallels between this style of journalism that was looked down upon in later history, and a resurgence of a similar style which seems more and more prevalent again today with many of the current commerical media organizations. Like the Hearst empire, we are also seeing a consolidation of the media into the hands of the fewer more rich and powerful.

Hearst Castle was never technically finished after William Hearst fell into bad health, stopping further construction. Now under the management of the California State park system as donated to California by the Hearst estate, it is open to the public for tours. While passing through the central coast, I visited this park. It is a beautiful place, with a pleasing climate. Being about 10 miles inland and about 1500' in altitude, the weather here tends to be mild, and more pleasant than the typically foggy weather down on the coast.

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