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| 115-room, 68,500-SF Hearst Castle ("La Cuesta Encantada") San Simeon, CA |
SAN SIMEON, CA -- Just a short stroll to the
Bay Club and marina, the Hearst-Davies home is priced at $2.195 million.
It is listed by Sabrina Teplin of Douglas
Elliman, The Hamptons, Long Island, New York.
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| William Randolph Hearst |
William Randolph Hearst was the legendary
publisher whose name still appears as the Hearst conglomerate: a leading
global, diversified media, information and services company with more than 360
businesses.
The movie Citizen Kane was based on his life
and he is famous for building the storied Hearst Castle on land he inherited
from his father overlooking San Simeon, California.
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| Millicent Wilson Hearst |
Hearst named the
estate La Cuesta Encantada (“The Enchanted Hill”) which included 240,000
acres, the castle and two large guest homes.
Construction on the 115-room
castle covering 68,500 square feet began in 1919 and was intended to capture the
grandeur of European architecture.
Features included velvet walls, marble
balconies, 40 bathrooms, a theater and two pools including an elaborate indoor
pool with blue-and-gold mosaic tiles that were based on the Roman baths.
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| Marion Davies Hearst |
Construction on the castle continued into the late 1940s, but The Enchanted
Hill was donated to the state in 1957 as the Hearst corporation couldn’t afford
to keep it. Today, Hearst Castle is one of California’s top tourist
attractions.
A life of ups and downs, Hearst was one of the
richest men in America peaking at $30 billion but almost broke during the Great
Depression.
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| President Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
He swung from a deeply liberal ideology and a Democratic
congressman from New York to an extreme right-wing conservative who opposed
President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives.
He had a lifelong
penchant for show girls and the inventor of fake news to create the shock value
that sold his newspapers, according to TopTenRealEstateDeals.com.
After marrying
showgirl Millicent Wilson in 1903, it was 12 years later when he embarked on an
affair with another showgirl, Ziegfeld Follies-star Marion Davies, which lasted
until his death in 1951.
Hearst and Davies spent most of their time at the
Hearst Castle partying with the upper-crust California social circuit but had a
summer home on New York’s Long Island where Hearst stayed while tending to his
publishing business in New York City and Marion lived while performing on
stage.
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| Florenz Ziegfield Jr. and his 1907 Ziegfield Follies dancers |
It is believed that Hearst purchased the home for Marion so she would
reside in the lap of comfort and luxury.
Built in 1906 on a little over an acre, the
New York Tudor-style mansion was one of five built near the original Beaux Arts
Casino, now known as the Bay Club.
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| Entryway to wine cellar |
These five homes were built to
accommodate people of wealth and celebrity who frequented the casino during the
Jazz Age in the early 20th century.
Today, while retaining its elegance
and charm of yesteryear, the seven-bedroom, six-bath home has been completely
updated while retaining its historic look.
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| Sabrina Teplin |
An ideal home for entertaining
large groups, there are double living rooms that can open into one large space
with fireplaces on either end, large kitchen with classic styling and a large
master suite with dressing room and fireplace.
Casual entertaining moves
to the lower floor that opens to the pool terrace with gazebo and includes a
game room, wet bar and 800-bottle wine cellar. A separate two-bedroom
guest cottage with a kitchen is also located on the grounds.
CONTACT:
Genelle
C. Brown
Content Manager, Media Division
TopTenRealEstateDeals.com
Phone: 434-480-4504
Twitter: @toptenrealestat
facebook.com/toptenrealestat
Content Manager, Media Division
TopTenRealEstateDeals.com
Phone: 434-480-4504
Twitter: @toptenrealestat
facebook.com/toptenrealestat
Photo Credit: Douglas Elliman
