Hearst Castle: Off With the Visitors’ Heads!

After visiting Hearst Castle for the first time recently, I’m thinking that we Californians might as well give back the castle and its acreage to the Hearst Corp. so it can be developed. After all, whatever they do can’t be any worse than what our state parks’ management has done with it.

William Randolph Hearst must be smiling in his grave at the class warfare that continues to be waged against visitors to his castle, with huge herds of them being bused through while loudspeakers blare a long list of rules. A loud buzzer is activated if anyone drifts off the narrow pathway inside, and guard-guides are posted at both the front and back of each group to make sure no one lingers to contemplate an artistic specimen. If tight management of huge crowds is the goal, they’d do better to study the elegant way that guests are welcomed at the Getty Center. I prefer that example of local hospitality.

Cynthia Berryman

Orange