Filoli

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Filoli is a famous mansion and 654 acre (2.6 km²) estate located about 25 miles (40 km) south of San Francisco on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Woodside, California. The house, garden and grounds are breathtaking and it is certainly one of the most elaborately embellished estates in the United States.

A garden pool at Filoli

Filoli was built by William Bowers Bourn II and his wife, Agnes Moody Bourn and served as one of their residences from 1917 to 1936. Mr. Bourn was president of the Spring Valley Water Company which owned Crystal Springs Lake and the surrounding area. The name of the estate is an acronym formed by combining the first two letters from the key words of William Bourn's credo: "Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life."

Prominent San Francisco architect Willis Polk was the principal designer for the house. He had previously designed Bourn's houses in Grass Valley and on Webster Street in San Francisco.

The estate was sold to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth in 1937. As heirs to the Matson Lines fortune it was natural that they would decorate some of the rooms in with articles related to this business, including paintings, photographs, and models of ships important to this company. In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated the estate in its entirety to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Today, Filoli is open for public tours. Attractions include self-guided tours, guided tours, and nature hikes. Several formal gardens are on the property, including some especially designed for weddings. The largest gardens are working gardens for the production of cut flowers for the mansion and for the growing of some vegetables. The gardens are largely maintained by local volunteers, one of whom may be seen in the image above carefully trimming the boundary hedge.

Filoli has served as the set for many Hollywood movies. It was the mansion featured in Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty and The Game with Michael Douglas. Most famously, it is the mansion seen from the air in the opening credits of the television series Dynasty. The mansion's plush interiors were also featured in the first episodes of the series but were subsequently replicated on soundstages at the Fox Studios, Century City.

Among the many striking mature trees on the grounds are a row of immense Italian Stone Pines and scattered specimen native Coast Live Oaks over 250 years in age, the latter of which are the backdrop for Warren Beatty's outdoor scenes at the estate.