Hearst Castle’s Neptune Pool is the hottest place to take a dip along California’s Central Coast—only it will require you to shell out cash for a one-time ticket or join The Foundation at Hearst Castle with a donation, which helps fund the castle’s art conservation and education programs. (Tickets to a swim event typically cost $950 for members.) Yet can you really put a price on the opportunity to swim at this storied San Simeon landmark, which was built for newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst between 1919 and 1947? It’s a rare chance to float where famed stars such as Howard Hughes, Joan Crawford, and Charlie Chaplin once frolicked. Admission is said to be capped at 40 people, so lucky attendees aren’t elbowing one another for the privilege of swimming in one of America’s most iconic design attractions.
The new form of fundraising is a more casual way to bring in money, a shift from the traditional ball-gown attire of fundraisers of the past. Last October, the outdoor 104-foot-long Neptune Pool—designed by the castle’s overall architect Julia Morgan—reopened after a $10 million renovation. Four Italian-relief sculptures, Vermont marble, colonnades, and the Greco-Roman style (part of the original design) are a testament to both Hearst’s and the architect’s appreciation for their home state of California. Over Morgan’s lifetime (1872–1957), she designed approximately 700 buildings, with the Hearst Castle being her most well-known. She’s also celebrated as the first woman to be admitted to the L’Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts’ architecture program in Paris (during the 1890s)—as well as being California’s first licensed female architect (in 1904).
The Roman Pool, which is the castle’s indoor pool, will feature its own fundraiser on October 20 for up to 20 people who have also made a minimum donation to the foundation. Built to mimic an ancient Roman bath, as Hearst requested, it’s a veritable sea of blue and orange, thanks to shimmery glass mosaic tiles inspired by the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy, and created by British muralist Camille Solon. The walls are all marble and the ceiling a faux evening sky with stars. Eight marble statues of Roman gods and goddesses (copies carved by Carlo Freter in Italy) are your view while you swim.
Reservations for all swim events opens on July 1.
