Cal Poly

Village Houses, San Simeon, California

Julia Morgan often worked behind the scenes at San Simeon. Far from the glamour of La Casa Grande with its objets d'art and famous guests, Morgan directed members of her staff and Hearst employees in the day-to-day construction and operation of the vast estate.

In the village of San Simeon, Morgan designed and constructed five unique houses in the Mediterranean style for the estate's senior staff and their families. Construction superintendent George Loorz, head gardener Nigel Keep, and maintenance head Marks Harry Eubanks lived in the Spanish-tiled stucco houses on the bay, while Don Pancho Estrada, descendent of the family who held the original Mexican land grants for San Simeon, lived in the house closest to the estate's warehouses. Morgan consulted with each member of the workers' families, including the children, before producing her designs. The fifth house, built nearby in the same Mediterranean vernacular, disguised the estate's poultry ranch. Julia Morgan calculated the cost of constructing the five staff houses at $110,000.

The San Simeon village houses are private property and not open to the public.