Julia Morgan was born in 1872 to a wealthy family in San Francisco, California. She had one sister and three brothers. Julia was a small, weak child, but her mother encouraged her to work hard. She studied hard and did very well in school. After she finished high school, Julia went to the University of California at Berkeley. In those days, few women went to college. In fact Julia was often the only woman in her math and science classes. In 1894, she became the first woman to graduate from the university with a degree in civil engineering.
One of Julia’s teachers was an architect named Bernard Maybeck. After graduation, Julia went to work as his assistant. He encouraged her to apply to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The Ecole was the most famous art school in the world at that time. In 1896, Julia left for Paris to study for the entrance exams.
In Paris, Julia Morgan worked for a French architect for two years. She practiced drawing and designing. She also
learned to speak and write in French. Morgan failed the entrance exams two times but she was not discouraged. Most students failed them at least twice. On her third try, she passed. She was the first woman to attend the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but she was not allowed to sit with her classmates. She had to sit behind a screen in all her classes because she was a woman. In 1902, Morgan became the first woman to graduate from the Ecole’s department of architecture.
Morgan returned to California and became the first woman to receive an architect’s license. In 1904, she opened her own architectural office. Morgan was talented and soon had a lot of work. Her most important project during this time was rebuilding the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. An earthquake in 1906 had destroyed it. After Morgan completed the Fairmont, she had so much work that she hired assistants to help her. She tried to hire women whenever possible. She also gave money to several schools to help female architecture students.
In 1915,William Randolph Hearst hired Morgan to design a Los Angeles office building. Four years later, he asked her to build the castle. Hearst was very demanding. He wrote Morgan hundreds of letters full of instructions, and he often changed his mind. Sometimes he told her to build something, then he told her to take it down and rebuild it in another place. In the end, he sometimes asked her to rebuild it a third time in its original place! Morgan’s work was meticulous. She paid careful attention to Hearst’s requests and wasn’t afraid of hard work. She wore pants under her skirt and climbed ladders to check the work herself. For more than 20 years she traveled 200 miles from San Francisco to San Simeon three weekends a month. For all of her work over so many years, Morgan received only $70,000.
Morgan never married. She was always busy with her work, so she didn’t have time for other interests or much of a social life. Her only social life was to visit her mother and her married sister. Morgan had
surgery that left her face crooked and also affected the way she spoke and moved. But she still continued to design schools, churches, public buildings and private homes.
In 1946, at age 78, Julia Morgan closed her office and traveled for the rest of her life. She died in 1957 at the age of 85. Her buildings still influence architects today.
