Wyntoon
Encyclopedia
Wyntoon is the name of a private estate on the McCloud River
in rural Siskiyou County, California
, owned by the Hearst Corporation
. Famous architects Willis Polk
, Bernard Maybeck
and Julia Morgan
all designed structures for Wyntoon.
The land, sited at two sharp bends in the river, was named by financial adviser Edward Clark for the local Native American tribe of the Wintun people. Beginning as a humble fishing resort, the land was improved by a series of people, notably San Francisco attorney Charles Stetson Wheeler
, his client Phoebe Apperson Hearst
, and her son William Randolph Hearst
who disputed with his cousin over ownership. Prominent structures, noted for their architecture, have been built on the land, some lost to fire, while other multi-million-dollar buildings were planned, but not built. Famous visitors to Wyntoon include Clark Gable
, Charles Lindbergh
, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
and his son John F. Kennedy
.
tribe of Native Americans
, a subgroup of the Wintun people.
In the 1880s, outdoorsman, guide, hunter and trapper Justin Hinckley Sisson came to the area and established a hotel, restaurant and tavern at the foot of Mount Shasta
. He advocated for a railroad line to be extended northward from Redding
to his location, and was successful. Construction of the Central Pacific Railroad
through the Siskiyou Trail began in the mid-1880s, and Sisson bought 120 acres (48.6 ha) in its path, the area of his inn. The railroad was completed in 1887 and brought miners, hunters, fishermen, loggers, naturalists and tourists. With his wife, the former Miss Lydia Field, Sisson operated the inn, and he led various groups of hunters, geologists and mountain climbers. With profits from his successful business, Sisson acquired large parcels of land including the tract which would become Wyntoon. He established the town of Sisson surrounding his inn, and he built a fishing resort a half-day's ride away on the McCloud River, at an elevation between 2700 and 3000 ft (823 and 914.4 ). It became known as "Sisson's-on-the-McCloud"—popular with hunters and fishermen.
Justin Sisson died in 1893. In 1924 the town of Sisson was renamed Mount Shasta, California
.
, a wealthy attorney from San Francisco. This parcel lay in the Cascade Range
of mountains, south by southeast of Mount Shasta. Wheeler called this holding the Wheeler Ranch, and he built a hunting lodge on the river at Horseshoe Bend—its cornerstone was laid in 1899. The multi-wing lodge, dramatic with its stone walls and slate roof, was designed by San Francisco architect Willis Polk
, and included an 800-book library with room for hundreds of Native American baskets. Wheeler directed Polk to give the lodge a "fish tower"—a high study with a view, and two windows which were aquariums containing local trout. A Latin inscription over the entrance indicated this room was a temple to fishing: piscatoribus sacrum. Polk's design was pictured in July 1899 in The American Architect and Building News which described it as a "California Mountain Home". Sir Banister Fletcher
included the building in a list of Shingle Style architecture
. The layout of the structure, a "rambling group of masses", snaked through the trees, curving to follow the bend in the river, the curve creating a courtyard with a circular drive and a central fountain. The dining room enjoyed a three-sided view of the river, and diners could take the air on a wraparound porch. The porch opened to the river in a flight of wooden steps leading down to an octagonal gazebo pierced and supported by a large tree, overhanging the tumbling waters. Massive fireplaces and heavy timbers gave the impression of a medieval estate interior. Polk's use of stone and wood on the exterior achieved a sense of compatibility with the land, celebrating the setting's primal beauty.
The Wheeler family stayed at the ranch many a summer. In 1900, Wheeler invited his client Phoebe Hearst to visit Wheeler Ranch with his family for the summer. Hearst asked if she could purchase the land, but Wheeler declined. Insistent, Hearst came to an arrangement whereby she would purchase a 99-year lease on part of the land, and she also purchased adjoining land held by Edward Clark, her financial adviser, who called it Wyntoon for the local Wintu tribe. Hearst applied the name Wyntoon to the combination of Clark's former holdings and her new lease, and in 1901 contracted for a magnificent seven-story house to be built. Wheeler was displeased with the extravagant plans, as he and Hearst had previously agreed her building would be modest. However, he did not stop her.
Wheeler retained the part of Wheeler Ranch that was not leased to Hearst, including The Bend. In 1911, Wheeler invited Austro-Hungarian artist and naturalist Edward Stuhl and his wife Rosie to live on the property; they made extensive studies of plant and animal life in the area, and collected many hundreds of specimens. Stuhl, an avid mountain climber, published Wildflowers of Mount Shasta from his base at Wheeler Ranch. After Wheeler's death in 1923, Stuhl served as custodian of the ranch. William Randolph Hearst
bought Wyntoon outright from its 99-year lease in 1929, and in 1934 bought all of Wheeler Ranch and The Bend, a combined total of 50000 acres (20,234.3 ha).
to design one in the Gothic
style of a Rhine River castle. The structure was mainly complete in 1902, and cost Hearst $100,000. Maybeck hired Julia Morgan
to assist in the design.
The castle's layout was fitted to the slope of the site, and to a semicircle of six tall conifers. Its footprint was 120 by; an underground cellar was 45 feet (13.7 m) wide, 15 feet (4.6 m) high, and ran the length of the building, containing stores and a central heating
furnace supplying steam throughout the building. The central tower made of stone reached to a height of 75 feet (22.9 m). A plumbed room entered from the outside allowed fishermen and hunters to clean their catch and themselves. Six floors of sleeping rooms were contained in the central tower; each bedroom entered from landings along the main spiral staircase carved of stone. The exterior of the tower was thick load-bearing crowning wall topped with a steeply angled roof to hold the weight of snow, and to shed excess snow. Glazed Paris-green
tile from the Netherlands surfaced the roof, providing "a misty color like the holes between the branches in the trees in the forest." Bluish-gray basalt
volcanic stone was quarried from local lava flows; it supplied the strength of the massive walls.
The living room, 80 by, had at one end an alcove framing a stained glass window, a copy of the 13th century one in Lorenzkirche in Nuremburg, the reproduction fabricated in the Netherlands. The room's apex was 36 feet high—a meeting of steeply angled wooden beams resting on 7 feet (2.1 m) thick stone walls. A tall fireplace separated the alcove from the majority of the living room; a large man could stand in its opening. Another fireplace warmed the other end of the living room. Tapestries hung from the stone walls to add a medieval appearance. Frederick Meyer
made furniture for this room, and for all Wyntoon, in European vernacular style.
Maybeck designed a dining hall much like the living room, with Gothic stone walls and high peaked roof, and two opposing fireplaces, but its Gothic tables were unusually placed against the walls leaving the center area open. Benches were provided for diners to sit. The kitchen wing, 40 by, adjoined the dining room, connected through a wide butler's hall. Staff were provided rooms in the kitchen wing. Its foundation of cut stone reached to the top of the ground floor; the second story's wall was of rubble stone. The roof was topped by light gray slate. Initial critical reactions to the kitchen wing's exterior appearance led Hearst to surround it with shrubbery.
Phoebe Hearst also built other structures including The Gables—a storybook dwelling for overflow guests—and a "Honeymoon Cottage". The castle was habitable in 1902, completely finished in 1904. It was featured in American Homes and Gardens in 1906, a three-page spread; the same space given the house in Architectural Review
in 1904. The writer in Architectural Review criticized the quaint wooden carvings which gave the impression of "pastry and perfume", but praised the most important aspects of the structure:
Hearst summered at Wyntoon and raised her son's children there when he was not watching them. William Randolph Hearst and his wife Millicent produced five sons from 1904 to 1915—each one spent summer months at Wyntoon with grandmother. The boys' father sent instructions about their upbringing, writing after the eldest boy George Randolph Hearst
was nearly washed down the McCloud, that the boys needed "a severe warning about the river". Hearst occasionally entertained her society friends and acquaintances at Wyntoon, bringing selected guests up north from the Panama–Pacific International Exposition
of 1915. At her death in 1919, she willed Wyntoon to her niece Anne Apperson Flint, along with a Cadillac car and $250,000.
Flint moved in with her husband, Joseph Marshall Flint, M.D, a former Yale professor of surgery. During this time, architect Julia Morgan designed four structures which were built at Wyntoon: a superintendent's residence and a separate servant's quarters in 1924, and in 1925, a stable
s building holding a caretaker's house erected near a "Swiss Chalet" which was built for higher-status domestic staff.
, the 900000 acres (364,217.4 ha) Babicora Ranch in Mexico, a fruit orchard in Butte County
, and various mining and industrial stocks, the whole worth around $5–$10 million. Wyntoon, however, was given to his cousin Anne Apperson Flint in his mother's will, and Hearst was angered over this. He refused to return to Flint any of the art objects from Wyntoon that had been loaned to the Palace of Fine Arts
for an exhibit. In 1925 after years of acrimonious negotiation, he bought Wyntoon from Flint for $198,000, but he remained forever embittered toward his cousin.
In the winter of 1929–1930, Maybeck's Wyntoon masterpiece burned down, possibly from a kitchen fire. Time
magazine reported Hearst's losses at $300,000 to $500,000, including portions of his art collection. In early 1930, Hearst contracted to have Morgan design an even larger castle as replacement. Morgan was already working for Hearst on Hearst Castle
in San Simeon and nearly finished with The Hacienda near King City
.
Morgan collaborated with her early mentor and teacher Maybeck on plans for an eight-story Bavarian Gothic-style castle with two great towers and more minor turrets, some 61 bedrooms proposed for Wyntoon's largest building project. Hearst instructed Arthur Byne, his art agent based in Madrid
, to find likely buildings he could purchase for their stonework, to give Wyntoon an ancient air. In December 1930, Byne discovered Santa Maria de Ovila
, a 700-year-old Cistercian monastery, and Hearst paid $97,000 for it. The monastery was taken apart and removed illegally, but the Spanish government was changing hands and was not effective in stopping Hearst's hired men. Some 10,000 stones were shipped to a warehouse in San Francisco at a total cost of about $1 million.
Another old structure removed from Europe was proposed for Wyntoon: the great tithe barn
of Bradenstoke Priory in England. Most of the priory had been used by Hearst to refurbish St Donat's Castle
in Wales in the late 1920s, but the tithe barn had been crated and shipped to San Simeon for possible use there. Hearst proposed that the unused Bradenstoke barn be incorporated into his great castle, and had Morgan study the possibilities.
In the Spring of 1931, Morgan offered several designs for Hearst's consideration, all of them using the stones of the Spanish monastery on the ground floor, reinforced by steel girders to take the weight of the upper floors. Portions of the monastery were considered as a library, an "armory", and a living room. The final proposal from Morgan included an indoor swimming pool constructed from the monastery's old church. The 150 feet (45.7 m) long swimming pool featured changing rooms and lounges in the old side chapels, shallow water for wading in the apse
, 11 feet (3.4 m) deep water in the central plunge, and a diving board where the altar had been.
In July 1931 as a steam shovel was making ready to level enough land to accommodate the great castle, Hearst put a stop to all his construction plans. The Great Depression
had greatly diminished his income, and he could not pay for his $50 million project at Wyntoon while at the same time indulging his expansion at San Simeon. Abandoning the massive castle idea, Hearst instead asked Morgan to design a "Bavarian Village" with multiple half-timbered
buildings in the medieval style of Germany or Austria. Hearst sent Morgan to Europe to study suitable buildings; she brought fine artist Doris Day with her to investigate architectural inscriptions and painting styles. In 1932, Morgan put together a master plan for Wyntoon. It described a group of guesthouses with romantic names such as Cinderella House, Fairy House and Bear House, arranged not in a cramped medieval style but symmetrically around a common green in the Beaux-Arts style. These three-story structures with steeply gabled roofs were completed in 1933. Swiss artisan Jules Suppo and his assistants carved much of the German Gothic decorations. Day painted fine inscriptions and exterior decorative patterns. Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany
painted exterior murals depicting Russian and Germanic fairy tales such as those from the Brothers Grimm
, but Pogany's versions were bright, humorous and cheerful, not dark and grim.
Downstream of the Bavarian Village, Morgan's plan called for a selection of leisure activities. A swimming pool with a pool house was to be near tennis courts and a croquet lawn, and a dining hall called "The Gables" would be equipped to show films. Though San Simeon could house perhaps 30 to 50 guests, the expanded Wyntoon plan could accommodate 100 for a weekend.
In 1934, Hearst bought all of Wheeler Ranch. Polk's structure "The Bend" was torn down except for one wing containing the master bedroom. This wing held the cornerstone engraved "The Bend – 1899". The rest of the building was redesigned by Morgan in Gothic Revival style and rebuilt from 1935 to 1941 using many of its original stones.
On January 1, 1935, photographer Peter Stackpole
's images of Wyntoon were published in Life
magazine, showing Hearst relaxing at Wyntoon with friends. Hearst's communications office at Wyntoon was shown in the photos; it was built next to Bear House to keep him abreast of current events. This office was fitted into a shingle-covered bungalow built to house Joe Willicombe, Hearst's private secretary. The structure served as the "nerve center" of Hearst's publishing empire, with three round-the-clock operators minding the telegraph facilities and the telephone switchboard
.
In mid-1937, Hearst was forced by bankruptcy to sign over all of his holdings to a group of trustees called the Conservation Committee. Wyntoon was included, it was estimated the prior year to be worth $300,000. Headed by New York Judge Clarence J. Shearn
, the trustees slashed Hearst's costs and halted the smaller side projects at San Simeon and Wyntoon which had kept so many contractors busy. Wyntoon was maintained only by a skeleton staff paid for by the Hearst Corporation
. Hearst never hosted more than 14 guests at Wyntoon after the bankruptcy. From 1938 to 1940, Hearst's art collections were cataloged and sold, including items from Wyntoon. Hearst was made to pay rent out of his allowance when he stayed at any of his properties.
After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor
, blackout conditions were imposed on San Simeon because of its nearness to the ocean and associated likelihood of Japanese shelling, so before Christmas Hearst moved to Wyntoon with his lover, actress Marion Davies
. There, the two lived in Bear House at the river's edge with their pet dachshunds. Davies' cherished dachshund named Gandhi, 15 years old, fell gravely ill during this time; a veterinarian was called and the animal put down
by injection. Distraught, Davies raged through Bear House, later writing: "I broke everything I could lay my hands on." Hearst's favorite dog Helen died in his arms at Wyntoon; he buried her on a hillside covered with flowers, the spot marked by a stone inscribed, "Here lies dearest Helen – my devoted friend."
During the Wyntoon residency of Hearst and Davies, they received fewer visitors than they had at San Simeon, because it was more remote. They spent much time together, and Davies picked up sewing again after years of no practice. She sewed silk fabric into ties for Hearst. He wrote her a poem or a short note every night, which he slipped under her door for her to see in the morning. Over the 1943–1944 winter, with snow and ice transforming the outdoor scenery, Wyntoon hosted actor Clark Gable
, film directors Louis B. Mayer
and Raoul Walsh
, columnist Louella Parsons
, cartoonist Jimmy Swinnerton and his wife, aviator Charles Lindbergh
and his family, the former president's daughter Anna Roosevelt and her husband John Boettiger (who worked for Hearst), and millionaire industrialist Joe Kennedy
who brought his 26-year-old son "Jack
", the future president. Jack surprised Hearst by swimming in the freezing McCloud.
in 1943, installing Richard E. Berlin as president. Under Berlin, Wyntoon was made to turn a profit—the old 50,000-acre Wheeler Ranch holding and adjoining parcels adding up to 67000 acres (27,114 ha) were logged and replanted with more tree seedlings, the operation generating about $2 million annually by 1959.
In the late 1980s, architects Blunk Demattei Associates (BDA) began working with the Hearst Corporation to complete the interior of "Angel House" whose construction had been halted in the late 1930s. BDA next began to remodel the one original bedroom wing of Polk's "The Bend". There, the second and main bedroom wing (finished in the 1950s in Tudor style) burned down on December 30, 1992, and BDA was contracted to rebuild it. Sensitive to the problem of recreating the ambiance, BDA used Sugar Pine
paneling in keeping with other rooms on site, wrought iron from Poland
and from local blacksmiths, stones quarried locally, and Renaissance-era fireplaces.
Today, the estate is owned by the Hearst Corporation, and is not open to the public. Wyntoon is located at approximately 41°11′21"N 122°03′58"W. It is north of Lake McCloud
, a man-made lake completed in 1965, and about 9 miles (14.5 km) due east of Dunsmuir, California
. Energetic kayakers willing to endure rough portages and dangerous rapids can view the estate from the Upper McCloud River during spring and summer snowmelt.
McCloud River
The McCloud River is a river that flows east of and parallel to the Sacramento River, long, in northern California in the United States. It drains a scenic mountainous area of the Cascade Range north of Redding...
in rural Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County, California
Siskiyou County is a county located in the far northernmost part of the U.S. state of California, in the Shasta Cascade region on the Oregon border. Yreka is the county seat. Because of its substantial natural beauty, outdoor recreation opportunities, and Gold Rush era history, it is an important...
, owned by the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
. Famous architects Willis Polk
Willis Polk
Willis Jefferson Polk was an American architect best known for his work in San Francisco, California.-Life:He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and was related to United States President James Polk....
, Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Maybeck
Bernard Ralph Maybeck was a architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley...
and Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan was an American architect. The architect of over 700 buildings in California, she is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California...
all designed structures for Wyntoon.
The land, sited at two sharp bends in the river, was named by financial adviser Edward Clark for the local Native American tribe of the Wintun people. Beginning as a humble fishing resort, the land was improved by a series of people, notably San Francisco attorney Charles Stetson Wheeler
Charles Stetson Wheeler
Charles Stetson Wheeler was an American attorney, working in Northern California. He served as a Regent of the University of California, and was a member of the Committee of Fifty working to maintain order after the devastating fire following the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco...
, his client Phoebe Apperson Hearst
Phoebe Hearst
Phoebe Apperson Hearst was an American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist. She was also the mother of William Randolph Hearst.-Biography:...
, and her son William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
who disputed with his cousin over ownership. Prominent structures, noted for their architecture, have been built on the land, some lost to fire, while other multi-million-dollar buildings were planned, but not built. Famous visitors to Wyntoon include Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
and his son John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
.
Justin Sisson's fishing resort
The earliest known inhabitants of the area of Wyntoon were the Winnemem WintuWinnemem Wintu
The Winnemem Wintu are a band of the Native American Wintu tribe originally located along the lower McCloud River, above Shasta Dam near Redding, California.-History:...
tribe of Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
, a subgroup of the Wintun people.
In the 1880s, outdoorsman, guide, hunter and trapper Justin Hinckley Sisson came to the area and established a hotel, restaurant and tavern at the foot of Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...
. He advocated for a railroad line to be extended northward from Redding
Redding, California
Redding is a city in far-Northern California. It is the county seat of Shasta County, California, USA. With a population of 89,861, according to the 2010 Census...
to his location, and was successful. Construction of the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
through the Siskiyou Trail began in the mid-1880s, and Sisson bought 120 acres (48.6 ha) in its path, the area of his inn. The railroad was completed in 1887 and brought miners, hunters, fishermen, loggers, naturalists and tourists. With his wife, the former Miss Lydia Field, Sisson operated the inn, and he led various groups of hunters, geologists and mountain climbers. With profits from his successful business, Sisson acquired large parcels of land including the tract which would become Wyntoon. He established the town of Sisson surrounding his inn, and he built a fishing resort a half-day's ride away on the McCloud River, at an elevation between 2700 and 3000 ft (823 and 914.4 ). It became known as "Sisson's-on-the-McCloud"—popular with hunters and fishermen.
Justin Sisson died in 1893. In 1924 the town of Sisson was renamed Mount Shasta, California
Mount Shasta, California
Mount Shasta is a city in Siskiyou County, California, located at around 3,600 ft on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the summit of its namesake volcano...
.
Charles S. Wheeler's hunting lodge
In 1899, Sisson's widow sold the McCloud River fishing resort site to Charles Stetson WheelerCharles Stetson Wheeler
Charles Stetson Wheeler was an American attorney, working in Northern California. He served as a Regent of the University of California, and was a member of the Committee of Fifty working to maintain order after the devastating fire following the earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco...
, a wealthy attorney from San Francisco. This parcel lay in the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
of mountains, south by southeast of Mount Shasta. Wheeler called this holding the Wheeler Ranch, and he built a hunting lodge on the river at Horseshoe Bend—its cornerstone was laid in 1899. The multi-wing lodge, dramatic with its stone walls and slate roof, was designed by San Francisco architect Willis Polk
Willis Polk
Willis Jefferson Polk was an American architect best known for his work in San Francisco, California.-Life:He was born in Jacksonville, Illinois and was related to United States President James Polk....
, and included an 800-book library with room for hundreds of Native American baskets. Wheeler directed Polk to give the lodge a "fish tower"—a high study with a view, and two windows which were aquariums containing local trout. A Latin inscription over the entrance indicated this room was a temple to fishing: piscatoribus sacrum. Polk's design was pictured in July 1899 in The American Architect and Building News which described it as a "California Mountain Home". Sir Banister Fletcher
Banister Fletcher
Sir Banister Flight Fletcher was an English architect and architectural historian, as was his father, also named Banister Fletcher....
included the building in a list of Shingle Style architecture
Shingle Style architecture
The Shingle style is an American architectural style made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of the Eastlake style in Queen Anne architecture....
. The layout of the structure, a "rambling group of masses", snaked through the trees, curving to follow the bend in the river, the curve creating a courtyard with a circular drive and a central fountain. The dining room enjoyed a three-sided view of the river, and diners could take the air on a wraparound porch. The porch opened to the river in a flight of wooden steps leading down to an octagonal gazebo pierced and supported by a large tree, overhanging the tumbling waters. Massive fireplaces and heavy timbers gave the impression of a medieval estate interior. Polk's use of stone and wood on the exterior achieved a sense of compatibility with the land, celebrating the setting's primal beauty.
The Wheeler family stayed at the ranch many a summer. In 1900, Wheeler invited his client Phoebe Hearst to visit Wheeler Ranch with his family for the summer. Hearst asked if she could purchase the land, but Wheeler declined. Insistent, Hearst came to an arrangement whereby she would purchase a 99-year lease on part of the land, and she also purchased adjoining land held by Edward Clark, her financial adviser, who called it Wyntoon for the local Wintu tribe. Hearst applied the name Wyntoon to the combination of Clark's former holdings and her new lease, and in 1901 contracted for a magnificent seven-story house to be built. Wheeler was displeased with the extravagant plans, as he and Hearst had previously agreed her building would be modest. However, he did not stop her.
Wheeler retained the part of Wheeler Ranch that was not leased to Hearst, including The Bend. In 1911, Wheeler invited Austro-Hungarian artist and naturalist Edward Stuhl and his wife Rosie to live on the property; they made extensive studies of plant and animal life in the area, and collected many hundreds of specimens. Stuhl, an avid mountain climber, published Wildflowers of Mount Shasta from his base at Wheeler Ranch. After Wheeler's death in 1923, Stuhl served as custodian of the ranch. William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
bought Wyntoon outright from its 99-year lease in 1929, and in 1934 bought all of Wheeler Ranch and The Bend, a combined total of 50000 acres (20,234.3 ha).
Phoebe Hearst's castle
Phoebe Hearst, upon signing the 99-year lease, decided to build a very grand residence. She hired Bernard MaybeckBernard Maybeck
Bernard Ralph Maybeck was a architect in the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early 20th century. He was a professor at University of California, Berkeley...
to design one in the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style of a Rhine River castle. The structure was mainly complete in 1902, and cost Hearst $100,000. Maybeck hired Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan was an American architect. The architect of over 700 buildings in California, she is best known for her work on Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California...
to assist in the design.
The castle's layout was fitted to the slope of the site, and to a semicircle of six tall conifers. Its footprint was 120 by; an underground cellar was 45 feet (13.7 m) wide, 15 feet (4.6 m) high, and ran the length of the building, containing stores and a central heating
Central heating
A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC system.Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation...
furnace supplying steam throughout the building. The central tower made of stone reached to a height of 75 feet (22.9 m). A plumbed room entered from the outside allowed fishermen and hunters to clean their catch and themselves. Six floors of sleeping rooms were contained in the central tower; each bedroom entered from landings along the main spiral staircase carved of stone. The exterior of the tower was thick load-bearing crowning wall topped with a steeply angled roof to hold the weight of snow, and to shed excess snow. Glazed Paris-green
Paris Green
Paris Green is an inorganic compound more precisely known as copper acetoarsenite. It is a highly toxic emerald-green crystalline powder that has been used as a rodenticide and insecticide, and also as a pigment, despite its toxicity. It is also used as a blue colorant for fireworks...
tile from the Netherlands surfaced the roof, providing "a misty color like the holes between the branches in the trees in the forest." Bluish-gray basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
volcanic stone was quarried from local lava flows; it supplied the strength of the massive walls.
The living room, 80 by, had at one end an alcove framing a stained glass window, a copy of the 13th century one in Lorenzkirche in Nuremburg, the reproduction fabricated in the Netherlands. The room's apex was 36 feet high—a meeting of steeply angled wooden beams resting on 7 feet (2.1 m) thick stone walls. A tall fireplace separated the alcove from the majority of the living room; a large man could stand in its opening. Another fireplace warmed the other end of the living room. Tapestries hung from the stone walls to add a medieval appearance. Frederick Meyer
Frederick Meyer
Frederick Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer , was an art educator prominent in the Arts and Crafts movement in the San Francisco Bay Area.-Early years:...
made furniture for this room, and for all Wyntoon, in European vernacular style.
Maybeck designed a dining hall much like the living room, with Gothic stone walls and high peaked roof, and two opposing fireplaces, but its Gothic tables were unusually placed against the walls leaving the center area open. Benches were provided for diners to sit. The kitchen wing, 40 by, adjoined the dining room, connected through a wide butler's hall. Staff were provided rooms in the kitchen wing. Its foundation of cut stone reached to the top of the ground floor; the second story's wall was of rubble stone. The roof was topped by light gray slate. Initial critical reactions to the kitchen wing's exterior appearance led Hearst to surround it with shrubbery.
Phoebe Hearst also built other structures including The Gables—a storybook dwelling for overflow guests—and a "Honeymoon Cottage". The castle was habitable in 1902, completely finished in 1904. It was featured in American Homes and Gardens in 1906, a three-page spread; the same space given the house in Architectural Review
Architectural Review
The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects....
in 1904. The writer in Architectural Review criticized the quaint wooden carvings which gave the impression of "pastry and perfume", but praised the most important aspects of the structure:
Hearst summered at Wyntoon and raised her son's children there when he was not watching them. William Randolph Hearst and his wife Millicent produced five sons from 1904 to 1915—each one spent summer months at Wyntoon with grandmother. The boys' father sent instructions about their upbringing, writing after the eldest boy George Randolph Hearst
George Randolph Hearst
George Randolph Hearst, Sr. was the eldest son of William Randolph Hearst.Though he never held a title higher than Vice-President at the Hearst Corporation, he was listed above many with higher-sounding titles when executives were listed in the company's publications...
was nearly washed down the McCloud, that the boys needed "a severe warning about the river". Hearst occasionally entertained her society friends and acquaintances at Wyntoon, bringing selected guests up north from the Panama–Pacific International Exposition
Panama–Pacific International Exposition
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California between February 20 and December 4 in 1915. Its ostensible purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery...
of 1915. At her death in 1919, she willed Wyntoon to her niece Anne Apperson Flint, along with a Cadillac car and $250,000.
Flint moved in with her husband, Joseph Marshall Flint, M.D, a former Yale professor of surgery. During this time, architect Julia Morgan designed four structures which were built at Wyntoon: a superintendent's residence and a separate servant's quarters in 1924, and in 1925, a stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
s building holding a caretaker's house erected near a "Swiss Chalet" which was built for higher-status domestic staff.
William Randolph Hearst's projects
From his mother's will, William Randolph Hearst received the bulk of the family inheritance, including the 270000 acres (109,265.2 ha) ranch in San SimeonSan Simeon, California
San Simeon is a census-designated place 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 away...
, the 900000 acres (364,217.4 ha) Babicora Ranch in Mexico, a fruit orchard in Butte County
Butte County, California
Butte County is a county located in the Central Valley of the US state of California, north of the state capital of Sacramento. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 220,000. The county seat is Oroville. Butte County is the "Land of Natural Wealth and Beauty."Butte County is watered by the...
, and various mining and industrial stocks, the whole worth around $5–$10 million. Wyntoon, however, was given to his cousin Anne Apperson Flint in his mother's will, and Hearst was angered over this. He refused to return to Flint any of the art objects from Wyntoon that had been loaned to the Palace of Fine Arts
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, is a monumental structure originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in order to exhibit works of art presented there. One of only a few surviving structures from the Exposition, it is the only one still...
for an exhibit. In 1925 after years of acrimonious negotiation, he bought Wyntoon from Flint for $198,000, but he remained forever embittered toward his cousin.
In the winter of 1929–1930, Maybeck's Wyntoon masterpiece burned down, possibly from a kitchen fire. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine reported Hearst's losses at $300,000 to $500,000, including portions of his art collection. In early 1930, Hearst contracted to have Morgan design an even larger castle as replacement. Morgan was already working for Hearst on Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle is a National Historic Landmark mansion located on the Central Coast of California, United States. It was designed by architect Julia Morgan between 1919 and 1947 for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who died in 1951. In 1957, the Hearst Corporation donated the property to...
in San Simeon and nearly finished with The Hacienda near King City
King City, California
King City is a city in Monterey County, California, United States. King City is located on the Salinas River southeast of Salinas, at an elevation of 335 feet . It lies along U.S. Route 101 in the Salinas Valley of the Central Coast of California. King City is a member of the Association of...
.
Morgan collaborated with her early mentor and teacher Maybeck on plans for an eight-story Bavarian Gothic-style castle with two great towers and more minor turrets, some 61 bedrooms proposed for Wyntoon's largest building project. Hearst instructed Arthur Byne, his art agent based in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, to find likely buildings he could purchase for their stonework, to give Wyntoon an ancient air. In December 1930, Byne discovered Santa Maria de Ovila
Santa Maria de Ovila
Santa María de Óvila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain in the 13th century on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara; about northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the monastery...
, a 700-year-old Cistercian monastery, and Hearst paid $97,000 for it. The monastery was taken apart and removed illegally, but the Spanish government was changing hands and was not effective in stopping Hearst's hired men. Some 10,000 stones were shipped to a warehouse in San Francisco at a total cost of about $1 million.
Another old structure removed from Europe was proposed for Wyntoon: the great tithe barn
Tithe barn
A tithe barn was a type of barn used in much of northern Europe in the Middle Ages for storing the tithes - a tenth of the farm's produce which had to be given to the church....
of Bradenstoke Priory in England. Most of the priory had been used by Hearst to refurbish St Donat's Castle
St Donat's Castle
St Donat's Castle is a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, overlooking the Bristol Channel in the village of St Donat's near Llantwit Major, and about 25km west of Cardiff...
in Wales in the late 1920s, but the tithe barn had been crated and shipped to San Simeon for possible use there. Hearst proposed that the unused Bradenstoke barn be incorporated into his great castle, and had Morgan study the possibilities.
In the Spring of 1931, Morgan offered several designs for Hearst's consideration, all of them using the stones of the Spanish monastery on the ground floor, reinforced by steel girders to take the weight of the upper floors. Portions of the monastery were considered as a library, an "armory", and a living room. The final proposal from Morgan included an indoor swimming pool constructed from the monastery's old church. The 150 feet (45.7 m) long swimming pool featured changing rooms and lounges in the old side chapels, shallow water for wading in the apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...
, 11 feet (3.4 m) deep water in the central plunge, and a diving board where the altar had been.
In July 1931 as a steam shovel was making ready to level enough land to accommodate the great castle, Hearst put a stop to all his construction plans. The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
had greatly diminished his income, and he could not pay for his $50 million project at Wyntoon while at the same time indulging his expansion at San Simeon. Abandoning the massive castle idea, Hearst instead asked Morgan to design a "Bavarian Village" with multiple half-timbered
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
buildings in the medieval style of Germany or Austria. Hearst sent Morgan to Europe to study suitable buildings; she brought fine artist Doris Day with her to investigate architectural inscriptions and painting styles. In 1932, Morgan put together a master plan for Wyntoon. It described a group of guesthouses with romantic names such as Cinderella House, Fairy House and Bear House, arranged not in a cramped medieval style but symmetrically around a common green in the Beaux-Arts style. These three-story structures with steeply gabled roofs were completed in 1933. Swiss artisan Jules Suppo and his assistants carved much of the German Gothic decorations. Day painted fine inscriptions and exterior decorative patterns. Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany
Willy Pogany
William Andrew Pogany was a prolific Hungarian illustrator of children's and other books.-Biography:...
painted exterior murals depicting Russian and Germanic fairy tales such as those from the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
, but Pogany's versions were bright, humorous and cheerful, not dark and grim.
Downstream of the Bavarian Village, Morgan's plan called for a selection of leisure activities. A swimming pool with a pool house was to be near tennis courts and a croquet lawn, and a dining hall called "The Gables" would be equipped to show films. Though San Simeon could house perhaps 30 to 50 guests, the expanded Wyntoon plan could accommodate 100 for a weekend.
In 1934, Hearst bought all of Wheeler Ranch. Polk's structure "The Bend" was torn down except for one wing containing the master bedroom. This wing held the cornerstone engraved "The Bend – 1899". The rest of the building was redesigned by Morgan in Gothic Revival style and rebuilt from 1935 to 1941 using many of its original stones.
On January 1, 1935, photographer Peter Stackpole
Peter Stackpole
Peter Stackpole was an American photographer. Along with Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, and Thomas McAvoy, he was one of Life Magazine's first staff photographers. He won a George Polk Award in 1954 and taught photography at the Academy of Art University. He also wrote a column in U.S....
's images of Wyntoon were published in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine, showing Hearst relaxing at Wyntoon with friends. Hearst's communications office at Wyntoon was shown in the photos; it was built next to Bear House to keep him abreast of current events. This office was fitted into a shingle-covered bungalow built to house Joe Willicombe, Hearst's private secretary. The structure served as the "nerve center" of Hearst's publishing empire, with three round-the-clock operators minding the telegraph facilities and the telephone switchboard
Telephone switchboard
A switchboard was a device used to connect a group of telephones manually to one another or to an outside connection, within and between telephone exchanges or private branch exchanges . The user was typically known as an operator...
.
In mid-1937, Hearst was forced by bankruptcy to sign over all of his holdings to a group of trustees called the Conservation Committee. Wyntoon was included, it was estimated the prior year to be worth $300,000. Headed by New York Judge Clarence J. Shearn
Clarence J. Shearn
Clarence John Shearn was a prominent New York City lawyer, a judge in the New York Court of Appeals, and a president of the New York City Bar Association-Early life and education:Shearn was born in Leeds, Massachusetts in 1869...
, the trustees slashed Hearst's costs and halted the smaller side projects at San Simeon and Wyntoon which had kept so many contractors busy. Wyntoon was maintained only by a skeleton staff paid for by the Hearst Corporation
Hearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
. Hearst never hosted more than 14 guests at Wyntoon after the bankruptcy. From 1938 to 1940, Hearst's art collections were cataloged and sold, including items from Wyntoon. Hearst was made to pay rent out of his allowance when he stayed at any of his properties.
After the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, blackout conditions were imposed on San Simeon because of its nearness to the ocean and associated likelihood of Japanese shelling, so before Christmas Hearst moved to Wyntoon with his lover, actress Marion Davies
Marion Davies
Marion Davies was an American film actress. Davies is best remembered for her relationship with newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, as her high-profile social life often obscured her professional career....
. There, the two lived in Bear House at the river's edge with their pet dachshunds. Davies' cherished dachshund named Gandhi, 15 years old, fell gravely ill during this time; a veterinarian was called and the animal put down
Animal euthanasia
Animal euthanasia is the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, an animal suffering from an incurable, especially a painful, disease or condition. Euthanasia methods are designed to cause minimal pain and distress...
by injection. Distraught, Davies raged through Bear House, later writing: "I broke everything I could lay my hands on." Hearst's favorite dog Helen died in his arms at Wyntoon; he buried her on a hillside covered with flowers, the spot marked by a stone inscribed, "Here lies dearest Helen – my devoted friend."
During the Wyntoon residency of Hearst and Davies, they received fewer visitors than they had at San Simeon, because it was more remote. They spent much time together, and Davies picked up sewing again after years of no practice. She sewed silk fabric into ties for Hearst. He wrote her a poem or a short note every night, which he slipped under her door for her to see in the morning. Over the 1943–1944 winter, with snow and ice transforming the outdoor scenery, Wyntoon hosted actor Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, film directors Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
and Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh
Raoul Walsh was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh...
, columnist Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
, cartoonist Jimmy Swinnerton and his wife, aviator Charles Lindbergh
Charles Lindbergh
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S...
and his family, the former president's daughter Anna Roosevelt and her husband John Boettiger (who worked for Hearst), and millionaire industrialist Joe Kennedy
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
who brought his 26-year-old son "Jack
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
", the future president. Jack surprised Hearst by swimming in the freezing McCloud.
Today
Hearst's trustees reorganized the Hearst CorporationHearst Corporation
The Hearst Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in the Hearst Tower, Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Founded by William Randolph Hearst as an owner of newspapers, the company's holdings now include a wide variety of media...
in 1943, installing Richard E. Berlin as president. Under Berlin, Wyntoon was made to turn a profit—the old 50,000-acre Wheeler Ranch holding and adjoining parcels adding up to 67000 acres (27,114 ha) were logged and replanted with more tree seedlings, the operation generating about $2 million annually by 1959.
In the late 1980s, architects Blunk Demattei Associates (BDA) began working with the Hearst Corporation to complete the interior of "Angel House" whose construction had been halted in the late 1930s. BDA next began to remodel the one original bedroom wing of Polk's "The Bend". There, the second and main bedroom wing (finished in the 1950s in Tudor style) burned down on December 30, 1992, and BDA was contracted to rebuild it. Sensitive to the problem of recreating the ambiance, BDA used Sugar Pine
Sugar Pine
Pinus lambertiana, commonly known as the sugar pine or sugar cone pine, is the tallest and most massive pine, with the longest cones of any conifer...
paneling in keeping with other rooms on site, wrought iron from Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and from local blacksmiths, stones quarried locally, and Renaissance-era fireplaces.
Today, the estate is owned by the Hearst Corporation, and is not open to the public. Wyntoon is located at approximately 41°11′21"N 122°03′58"W. It is north of Lake McCloud
Lake McCloud
Lake McCloud is a reservoir on the McCloud River in Northern California. The lake forms behind an earthen dam finished in 1965 by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company to control water flows and for generating hydro-electric power...
, a man-made lake completed in 1965, and about 9 miles (14.5 km) due east of Dunsmuir, California
Dunsmuir, California
Dunsmuir is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 1,650 at the 2010 census, down from 1,923 at the 2000 census. It is currently a hub of tourism in Northern California as visitors enjoy fishing, skiing, climbing, or sight-seeing...
. Energetic kayakers willing to endure rough portages and dangerous rapids can view the estate from the Upper McCloud River during spring and summer snowmelt.