Friends of Hearst Castle launches drive for multimillion-dollar fund

The nonprofit group plans to raise the money for the endowment during the Castle’s three-year celebration

Kathe Tanner

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The Friends of Hearst Castle nonprofit organization hopes to raise enough money to establish a $20 million to $30 million endowment during three years of celebration.

The fund is expected to generate about $2 million a year for preservation, conservation and education programs at Hearst Castle.

A sell-out crowd of about 300 people paid $100 each to attend an expanded annual Twilight on the Terrace wine-tasting event May 31. The event served as a kick-off for two years’ celebration of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Castle to public tours in 1958, plus a third year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the organization’s founding in 1985.

FRIENDS OF HEARST CASTLE EVENTS

• July 18: “Ageless Beauty,” Salon Series lecture at the Castle gardens and terraces.

• Sept. 3: “Hearst: The Collector,” Salon Series lecture about the upcoming Los Angeles County Museum of Art show, Monday Club, San Luis Obispo.

• Sept. 27: Friends’ biggest annual fundraiser, the Enchanted Evening, at the Castle.

• Oct. 23: “An Evening with Steve Hearst,” Salon Series event at the Hearst Cancer Resource Center, French Hospital, San Luis Obispo.

• Mid-November: “Going Hollywood,” a living-history fashion show at the Hearst warehouse in San Simeon.

• Dec. 6: “Holiday Feast,”

annual dinner in the Hearst Castle Refectory.

• Dec. 11: “Arachnid’s Legacy: Weavings at Hearst Castle,” Salon Series behind-the-scenes tour of Castle textiles and fabrics.

For more information, call 927- 2138 or visit www.friendsofhearstcastle.org.

According to Carol Schreiber, the group’s executive director, the organization has funneled more than $3 million into Castle projects since 2000.

The most visible projects include:

• Outdoor lamps and wiring that light up the estate for popular nighttime tours;

•Restoring a 500-year-old Spanish ceiling in the Billiard Room, a project that’s now estimated to cost $600,000 and take six years to complete;

• The ongoing Living History program that provides costumed docents for the night tours and other events;

• Paying $160,000 to digitally archive more than 9,000 Julia Morgan architectural drawings;

• Restoring the mille fleur tapestry;

• Statuary restoration such as the Venus Canoga, which will be one of 35 artworks being sent to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for the “Hearst: The Collector” show from November through March; and

• Many educational projects, including co-founding Hearst Castle Press—which last year published “Faces of Hearst Castle”—developing a show to take Castle magic to fourth-and fifth-graders and providing special tours for at-risk youths.

Attendees at the May 31 event were given an example of what restoration funds can accomplish. Ruth Coleman, director of State Parks, and Stephen Hearst, a great-grandson of the media mogul, pressed a button that electronically triggered 36 carillon bells in the Celestial Towers of the Castle’s Casa Grande.

Lawrence “Sparky” Ross played about 30 seconds worth of “Simple Gifts” from the bells’ keyboard in the vestibule of the Castle theater.

Even then, the aging carillons, designed for Hearst and cast in Belgium in 1928 and 1929, had been silent for years to avoid damage, according to Hoyt Fields, museum director. He estimated long-range repairs will cost at least $215,000, but after recent short-term fixes, a bell conservator deemed the instruments stable enough to play for short periods.

Later, three contributors put up more than $3,600 for a chance to ring the bells.

Now, the Castle’s bells will ring every day at noon.