The Hacienda

The Hacienda is the current name for a hotel in Monterey County, California, that was completed in 1930 for use by William Randolph Hearst as temporary housing for his employees and guests and headquarters for activities taking place on the surrounding land. The lodge building, designed by architect Julia Morgan, replaced and expanded upon an earlier wooden structure known as the Milpitas Ranch House which was destroyed by fire in the 1920s. The 1930 hotel has also been known as Milpitas Hacienda, Hacienda Guest Lodge and Milpitas Ranchhouse, under which name the property was placed in the National Register of Historic Places on December 2, 1977. The lodge includes a restaurant, a lounge, a cantina, offices, public assembly rooms, guest rooms, a swimming pool and a tennis court. Hearst sold the structure and its surrounding property to the United States Army in 1940 for use as a training facility. The land and buildings were established by the Army as Fort Hunter Liggett. Today, the Army owns the building and a concessionaire operates it as a public hotel within the military base. History The fertile valley surrounding The Hacienda was documented by Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolà in 1769. Based on his recommendation, Father Junípero Serra established Mission San Antonio de Padua in the valley in 1771, and it thrived. Of all the California missions, San Antonio de Padua converted the highest number of Native Americans, peaking at 1,300 Salinan converts in 1805. In the 1830s, the mission was secularized and its holdings were divided into at least ten land grants (including Rancho Milpitas, or Little Corn Fields Ranch) given to soldiers and civilians supportive of Mexican government. English-speaking settlers began arriving in significant numbers in 1849 with the discovery of gold in California. Nearby Jolon was established as a gold mining town on an old Salinan village site in 1860, astride El Camino Real, the old road connecting all the Spanish missions in California. Hearst At the beginning of the 20th century, gold mining had petered out and Hearst began buying up property in the area. Over the next two decades, he amassed land holdings covering the entirety of four of the ten Mexican land grants and most of Jolon. On top of the old Rancho Milpitas main ranch house site, at the edge of a small bluff less than a mile from and overlooking the old mission, Hearst hired Morgan to build a new ranch headquarters.