After the 1906 earthquake, many wealthy San Francisco families relocated to the Peninusla and built large estates. A number of these families made their fortunes in the railroad, mining, banking and mercantile boom of America's Gilded Age. Filoli is the last of these estates remaining on all of its original 654 acres. Built by Mr. and Mrs. William Bowers Bourn II from 1917 to 1919 and sold to Mr. and Mrs. William P. Roth in 1937. In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated the estate to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Filoli Entrance
Filoli represents an excellent example of architecture and garden design from the first part of the twentieth century. The long Transverse Hallway runs north to south, parallel to the valley in which the House is set. Both the rooms of the House and the formal Garden are organized along this axis. The residence, which connects to the garden wall, was sited to one side, preserving the valley floor and the grand vista to the north towards Crystal Springs Lake. The House contains 36,000 square feet of interior floor space on two floors and a mezzanine. There are forty-three rooms and seventeen fireplaces.
Curios Things
Have you ever seen the TV show "Dynasty" ? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mt6PaLM3Yg&feature=related), or the movie "Heaven can wait" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxE9MriSy4I&feature=related), well those were filmed in this property.
In the Library they have two interesting thins: An Isphahan carpet, and a "must be here" chair.
The carpet was used in Queen Victoria's House on the Isle Wight, and the chair's story is this: When
Mrs. Roth donated the estate to the National Trust she gave away many of the furnishings that she used in the House when it was her home, among them was the chair. Since Filoli opened in 1975, furnishing the House has been an ongoing process with the goal to furnish it as it might have been when the House was occupied. In 1998 Melville Martin, a Southern California collector went to Filoli and took the tour, he was delighted with the house and decided to gave a major gift of eighteen-century English furnishings and guess who was included?.....The chair!!. When something is meant to be, it will be for sure.
Many of us give importance to the kitchen in our house, since it's a place of reunion and we spend a lot of time in there, but they took the concept beyond: The kitchen in Filoli is actually three kitchens and a safe, that's right a safe for the silverware!
Safe for Silverware
Then they have the " Serving kitchen", the kitchen for preparing the food and the last one just for pastries.
Serving Kitchen
Pastries Kitchen
And finally in the Kitchen they have an alerting system, that alerted the employees when a member of the family needed something in one of the rooms. One or many of this leds turned red indicating the room where the button was pressed.
What to have for dinner every night was also a quite different experience, they selected among a various menus, and various dishes, wines, soups, salads and desserts.
The Garden
The sixteen-acre formal Garden was planned and planted as construction of the House neared completion. Inspired by European influences, the Garden is a succession of garden rooms containing parterres, terraces, lawns, and pools, arranged between the two parallel north-south walks.
My favorite part
Filoli is dedicated to the preservation, interpretation and stewardship of the cultural traditions and natural history, and as part of that they have plants and fruits that are preserved only here, and every year they have a Fruit Tasting event, what I found amazing and will definitely go!.
