Our Mission The Architecture The mission of California State Parks is to provide for the health, inspiration and of education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological JULIA diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities MORGAN for high-quality outdoor recreation. in California State Parks California State Parks supports equal access. Prior to arrival, visitors with disabilities who need assistance should contact the park they plan to visit. If you need this publication in an alternate format, contact [email protected]. CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS P.O. Box 942896 Sacramento, CA 94296-0001 For information call: (800) 777-0369 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. Julia Morgan designed nearly 711, TTY relay service 700 buildings, more than any other architect of the 20th www.parks.ca.gov century. Her architectural legacy gives three-dimensional evidence Discover the many states of California.™ of her innovative ideas and her Cover drawing: Detail of Hearst Castle personal philosophy of design. refectory freplace by Julia Morgan, 1927 Dodge Chapel Auditorium, Asilomar Photo by Peter Nichols © 2012 California State Parks (Rev. 2015) JULIA MORGAN (1872-1957) Julia Morgan was born admitted into L’Ecole. By 1901, at 29, she Morgan eventually moved her offce in San Francisco had earned the required four certifcation to Montgomery Street in San Francisco. on January 20, medals, becoming L‘Ecole de Beaux When the 1906 earthquake struck the city, 1872, and raised Arts’ frst graduating woman architect. Morgan’s offce was destroyed, but her in her family’s Julia Morgan library of architectural books, stored in home in Oakland, returned to San Oakland, was spared from damage. California. She Francisco in 1902. A few months after the earthquake, the exhibited talents She accepted Law Brothers hired Morgan to rebuild their for mathematics a position with Fairmont Hotel. It would prove to be one and playing architect John Galen of the most important commissions of her ca. 1878 the violin. After Howard, designing career. Morgan reset steel girders, replaced graduating from Oakland High School new buildings for marbled columns and ceilings, and in 1890, she attended the University of the UC Berkeley reinforced stairs. Within a year, the hotel California (UC) at Berkeley. Morgan was campus. Morgan was was open for business. the only woman to earn a degree in civil the draftsman for While she was working on the Fairmont engineering in 1894. the Hearst Mining Hotel, Morgan opened her new offce with A year after graduation, Morgan Julia Morgan’s student Building and assistant a junior partner, Ira Hoover, in the Merchant traveled to Paris, France, to attend identifcation card for supervising architect Exchange Building in San Francisco. When the architectural school at L’Ecole de L’Ecole de Beaux Arts for the outdoor Greek Hoover moved to the east coast in 1910, Beaux Arts. Because she Amphitheater. Morgan never took on another partner, was a woman, she Steadily building working as was denied experience, Morgan opened the principal admission. her own offce in 1904. Morgan architect. Two years later, was the frst woman ever to Morgan Morgan was fnally receive California’s State accepted permitted to take Architectural License (License nearly every the admission #B344). She set up an offce architectural exams; on her in the carriage house of her commission third attempt, parent’s home. Friends called that came her she was with small commissions, way — more mostly houses. Morgan’s frst than 700 over El Campanil bell large commission was the her career. Her tower at Mills College, completed El Campanil bell tower at designs ranged in 1904 Oakland’s Mills College in 1904. Reconstruction of the Fairmont Hotel, 1907 from single- In 1951, Julia Morgan closed her offce at age 79. She spent the next year traveling to Spain and Portugal. She retired quietly to her apartment on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, visited by family members and a few close friends. Miss Morgan died on February 2, 1957, at age 85. Dinsmore residence family dwellings and apartment buildings to commercial and institutional structures. Morgan’s largest institutional clients were the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and women’s clubs. Her longest commission came from William Randolph Hearst’s San Simeon retreat. Morgan’s professional reputation cited her careful work and on-site supervision. She designed to please the Above: Passport client with photo, ca. 1951 both function and form. Her Left, Morgan’s family architectural and friends, 1943. services could From top left to be affordable bottom right: Flora by the common North, Sachi Oka, Sally person or Moon Morgan, Julia lavishly scaled Morgan, Emma Moon, for wealthier Hart North, Emma clients. North, Judith Morgan Photos: ©Julia Morgan papers, Special Collections, California Polytechnic University EARST CASTLE H For information on tours and events: Hearst San Simeon Hearst San Simeon “The Enchanted Hill.” Morgan’s State Historical Monument State Historical Monument design evokes a Mediterranean 750 Hearst Castle Road Hearst Castle is Julia Morgan’s best- hill town of the Renaissance era. San Simeon, CA 93452 known project. World-renowned The twin-towered main building (805) 927-2020 for its dramatic beauty, the project (called Casa Grande) resembles a www.hearstcastle.org became one of the longest and most Spanish church. Just below it are fascinating collaborations between three lavishly decorated cottages architect and client. It started in 1919, surrounded by terraced gardens. when newspaper publisher William Further down the hillside, two Randolph Hearst asked Miss Morgan imposing swimming pools are built to design a small bungalow on his in ancient Roman style. family’s campsite overlooking San Julia Morgan worked closely Simeon Bay. This modest beginning with Hearst on every aspect of the evolved into a vast Mediterranean- estate, as thousands of surviving style estate of 165 rooms. Hearst letters and drawings attest. For generally called the compound his more than twenty-eight years, “ranch at San Simeon.” Morgan showed great patience Known as Hearst Castle today, its with Hearst’s “changeableness of formal name is La Cuesta Encantada, mind.” She designed all the hilltop buildings and worked as both interior decorator and landscape architect. She built the zoo, airport, barns, stables, estate village in San Simeon, and Hearst’s large Spanish-style Hacienda, the ranch headquarters thirty miles north. Throughout this enormous project, Photo courtesy of Bison Archives she continued her busy architectural practice in San Francisco. William Randolph Hearst died in 1951. His heirs and the Hearst Corporation donated the Castle to William Randolph Hearst and Julia Morgan, California State Parks in 1957. ca. 1928 HEARTHSTONE Humboldt Redwoods State Park The completed landmark serves as the focal point in the redwood grove as One of the largest and oldest volunteer it enhances the grandeur of the outdoor organizations in the world is the General space. Above each freplace mantel, a Federation of Women’s Clubs, founded in medallion of smooth stone is inscribed 1890. The California chapter (CFWC) was with four different engravings: organized in 1900. The CFWC held their state convention “For lo in the forest comes contentment in Eureka in 1923. To underscore the peace and the sweet companionship convention’s theme — Conservation, the of nature.” Hope of Civilization — delegates traveled “Oldest of living things what wisdom south to Dyerville to see redwood forests. forests teach stirring men’s heart to Impressed by the beauty and size of the thought deeper than speech.” redwoods, the members decided to help save these trees by purchasing an old- “Would that we were great as these and growth redwood grove through the Save men were brotherly as trees.” the Redwoods League. Starting in 1928, the “These are the oldest of all living things.” California Chapter collected $1 from each of their members and raised $45,000. With For information: matching funds from State bonds, their Humboldt Redwoods Interpretive Assn. grove was purchased in 1931 and dedicated P.O. Box 276, Weott, California 95571 in 1933. It protects nearly 1,000 redwood [email protected] • (707) 946-2263 trees and 106 acres of redwood ecosystem that continue to fourish today in Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The CFWC hired Julia Morgan in 1933 to design a memorial to symbolize their victorious effort and champion their motto, “Strength United is Stronger.” Miss Morgan designed the “Hearthstone,” four stone freplaces united with a common chimney. Oversized rocks, collected along the south fork of the Eel River, face all aspects of the structure. Cut tree trunks support wood roofs that cover the open hearths. Stone bench inglenooks provide a resting place. U.S. IMMIGRATION STATION Angel Island State Park Opening in 1910, the U.S. Immigration Station on Angel Island processed over 500,000 immigrants before closing its doors in 1940. The Station was primarily built to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Bungalow cottages, ca. 1960 Act of 1882, aimed at excluding laborers and working-class people coming from were needed. Architect Julia Morgan was the concrete foundations along the main China and other Asian countries. The law hired by her brother-in-law, Hart H. North, road. Today, the barracks buildings at would expand to encompass immigrants Commissioner at the U.S. Immigration Station, the Immigration Station serve as a house from over 80 countries. to design them. Miss Morgan catalogued the museum and are open for viewing and tours. commission as Job #303. For more information, visit Morgan designed 12 small www.parks.ca.gov/angelisland bungalow cottages nestled on a hillside overlooking the Angel Island Immigration complex and the bay. They Station Foundation created a neighborhood for the www.aiisf.org families and staff that worked Angel Island Conservancy at the Station.