Over the next few years, Morgan would be granted several small commissions from the Hearst family. In 1904, after two years of working in Howard’s office, she gained certification as a licensed California Architect and set out to start her own architectural office. Upon returning to the United States, she would gain employment with John Galen Howard, who was working on projects for the Hearst family at the time. After six years in Paris and struggling to obtain a diploma at the Beaux Arts, Julia Morgan finally returned home to California. However, Morgan gracefully declined the offering. The Hearst family had built excessive wealth from the mining business, and Phoebe was impressed by her determination and accomplishments of Morgan. Upon hearing that Morgan was admitted to the Beaux-Arts, Phoebe Hearst offered to pay for her tuition. She would be the first woman to attend the school.īernard Maybeck would introduce Julia Morgan to Phoebe Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst. On the second attempt, she passed and was admitted to the Beaux-Arts. After encouragement from Maybeck, Julia Morgan applied to take the entrance exam into the university. Julia Morgan Attends the Ecole des Beaux ArtsĪt the time, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris was the premier architectural university to attend. This was a massive accomplishment for the time but would only be the first of many achievements for the young woman. Julia Morgan would graduate from the College of Engineering in 1894, becoming the first woman graduate of the University. Maybeck encouraged her to attend these classes as he must have noticed her natural ability as a drafter and design sense. Bernard Maybeck, famed American Arts and Crafts Architect, was her professor and offered evening classes in Architectural design as the College of Engineering did not offer Architectural classes at the time.

Women attending University at this time in history was very rare, not to mention enrolling in the College of Engineering. In 1890 Julia Morgan was pursuing her degree at the University of California Berkley. Julia Morgan, The Architect of the Hearst Castle

Hearst castle