In addition to a new and resilient access road, the reopening of Hearst Castle provides the historic site with an opportunity to shine an even brighter spotlight on the Ecole de Beaux Arts-trained Morgan, who has historically taken somewhat of a backseat to William Randolph Hearst (and the estate’s many notable Hollywood habitués during the Roaring Twenties) in public-facing programming. Photos detailing road repair work at Hearst Castle. Stretching a total of 5 miles through rugged terrain rising more than 1,500 feet above the Pacific Ocean and Highway 1, the final 2.5-mile stretch of roadway “navigates rocky outcroppings and steep canyons by splitting into separate, narrower, one-directional sections for uphill and downhill traffic.” The estimated $13.7 million repair project, which focused on the upper section of the road, involved constructing new concrete retaining walls and restoring some of the existing historic stone walls replacing the road’s storm-marred, 1920s-era clay pipe culverts with modern counterparts able to withstand future deluges and tearing up the old asphalt roadway and recycling it into a “thicker, stronger” new roadway as part of a full-depth reclamation process. “We are confident that these once-in-a-lifetime repairs and improvements to the road facility will serve countless generations to come.”Īs detailed by California State Parks, roughly 22,000 annual tour bus trips were made along the main access road prior to the pandemic. “Hearst Castle is a state treasure and we are thrilled to reopen this wonder to the public to enjoy in a safe and responsible manner,” said California State Parks Director Armando Quintero in a statement announcing Hearst Castle’s highly anticipated reopening. National Historic Landmark and a California Historical Landmark. Today, the grounds are part of the California State Parks-operated Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument. Now, a section of the storm-damaged roadway has now been reconstructed and California State Parks has reopened Hearst Castle to visitors following its more than two-year closure, which included 10 months of emergency road repair work.īuilt between 19 for publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, the opulent hilltop villa first opened for public tours as a historic house-museum in 1958 following the Hearst Corporation’s donation of the 127-acre property to the State of California.

Better known as Hearst Castle, the historic San Luis Obispo County estate suspended public tours in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic even as pandemic restrictions eventually lifted across California and beyond, Hearst Castle remained off-limits to the public following a historic rainstorm in January 2021 that led to culvert failures along the upper portion of site’s main access road.

Julia morgan architect