A handful of men made large fortunes through their positions atop the Comstock mining companies and its web of financial interests. The silver kings, as they were called, joined with the Big Four railroad owners to employ the most skilled building craftsmen to raise enormous mansions on Nob Hill. No costs were spared. Their ornate homes featured some of the finest furnishings pillaged from European cultural history. Charles Crocker’s 12,500 square foot house boasted a seventy-six foot tower and a theater. Mark Hopkins’s garish wooden castle included an oak-paneled dining room with seats for sixty. Silver mining engineer and capitalist George Hearst had a mansion built a block away from Crocker’s. His son, William Randolph, later to become owner of the nation’s most extensive media empire, drew inspiration for his San Simeon castle from memories of the neighborhood of his youth.