All together, there are four buildings at San Simeon:  La Casa Grande (the main building), La Casa del Sol, La Casa del Monte, and La Casa del Mar. He had wanted two more guest houses added to the project eventually; one would incorporate an English Tudor and the other Chinese in style.  That part of the project was never begun other than Morgan's preliminary elevations for an additional house.  Throughout the building of the Castle, Hearst referred to the three houses always as "cottages".  The first cottage to be completed was La Casa del Mar which his family occupied: there were eighteen rooms on three levels, totaling nearly 6,400 square feet of living space. La Casa del Monte, the smallest of the three buildings, has ten rooms and about 2,300 square feet.  The third house, La Casa del Sol, is built above a huge terrace positioned for the guests to enjoy sunset ocean views.  It has eighteen rooms on three levels covering approximately 3,100 square feet.  Oh, yes, little "cottages in the woods".

   Julia Morgan was an obsessive architect and, Hearst took advantage of that fact.  He'd order her to start construction on one building and, within a very few weeks, contradict his first order telling her to work on the cottages. At right is the drawing of the overhang we showed you in our original pictures and again, at right next to the drawing.

Early on Morgan realized that she had to hire a representative and construction superintendent who would follow her orders and maintain the work force that could number up to 100 men at any given point.  The men that were hired were brought in because of their specialties.  They were broken out into different "gangs" assigned to different tasks: roads, fences, orchards, gardens, construction, cement and pools.

From the beginning of the project, orchards and gardens were cultivated to support the food that was provided for the workers.  The fences and roads were constructed first, very roughly, requiring weeks to bring materials for building up from the piers; the crews were to make the roads smoother and more accessible.  Fences to keep the animals in and the strangers out were constructed; eventually Hearst would even have cages and dens constructed for polar bears and other animals.  The entire menagerie contained on the grounds of Hearst Castle included zebras, gazelles, llamas and any variety of unusual animal.

All of the houses were completed, eventually.  The main outdoor pool was reconstructed three times because he'd run out of space at the Hearst pool parties.  The indoor pool was constructed for the times when it was too cold to be in the pool that was outdoors (even though it was kept, year round at a temperate 80 degrees) however few people enjoyed swimming in it because the entire pool was ten feet deep.  A smaller area often called "The Wimpy Pool" by Hearst was added so that people could rest when swimming; being 10 feet deep everywhere, the other pool didn't allow for resting periods.

   These pictures show the detail to which the workers went, at Hearst's insistence, during a time when the work had to be done by hand or with primitive work tools and machinery to assist.  The picture on the left is an Oak tree being moved to a more suitable location for the houses and construction and, the picture to the right is the landscaping being done around one of the cottages.

Even after 29 years of construction, when Hearst left the house in 1948, it wasn't finished-- work had begun on the bowling alley and the house and cottages were in a constant state of re-design.  It is considered the most expensive, expansive and beautiful house, ever not finished.

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