Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument and Mansion

William Randolph Hearst, publishing tycoon,  was a hoarder but instead of hoarding miscellaneous trash and flea market finds, he hoarded European antiques and entire rooms from estates and castles. All of this was stored in two huge New York warehouses and several smaller ones. The largest warehouse, in the Bronx, was five stores and spanned five square blocks. 

Many of his treasures found a home in his sprawling mansion over looking the ocean on a hill above San Simeon, California. For over 20 years Hearst collaborated with Julia Morgan, the first female architect licensed in California and a pioneer in the use reinforced concrete as a building material, to create the 115-room mansion. 

Hearst fell deeply in debt during the 1930s due to overextending his credit to buy newspaper outlets, magazines, and radio stations and more antiques. His treasures had to go! Over 15,000 pieces were put on display on the fifth floor of Gimbles in New York - tapestries, silverware, Egyptian antiques, pottery, china, terra-cotta, Roman objects, guns, frescoes, swords, jewelry, rugs, flags, and more.

Fortunately most of the items sold were the extras stored in the warehouses and his mansion is still an example of the excesses that are possible with extreme wealth. Five tours were listed on the website when we visited but all of them except for the Accessibly Designed Grand Rooms Tour have hundreds of steps. The Accessibility Tour is almost the same as the Grand Rooms Tour but goes in a round about way that skips the stairs. It also skips the gardens. We did get to go through the kitchen which isn't part of the Grand Rooms Tour.

Shuttles take visitors from the parking lot up the hill to the mansion. The shuttles can accommodate two wheelchairs. Visitors who need to use a wheelchair must fill that information in on the form when reserving their tickets. Because of the limited wheelchair spaces, the tour groups may be small. Our tour only had two people besides us so we had an almost private tour. 

Both the bus drivers and our tour guide were very nice and accommodating. The road going up the hill is twisty but the tie downs kept my wheelchair secure. After departing the bus we boarded an electric cart to travel from one accessible entrance to another. The tour through the rooms of the mansion is accessible. 

The visitor center located at the parking lot has a small museum that doesn't require a ticket to visit. The museum is accessible. There's also a theater that shows “Hearst Castle – Building the Dream.”  A tour ticket is required to enter the theater. The accessible seats are in the top tier and the view is good.

The parking lot has long spaces for RVs.  Mansion  35.64891, -121.18458