Filoli Historic House & Garden

The story of Filoli Historic House & Garden

Filoli Historic House & Garden stands inside Filoli, the Bourn-Roth Estate in Woodside, California, a country house set in 16 acres of formal gardens on a 654-acre estate. The striking thing here is the combination of the house and the garden as a single historic property, now open to the public and listed as a California Historical Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

Britannica-style coverage is missing for this exact place, but Filoli’s own historic-house page says the house was built by Agnes and William Bourn, the original owners. Their idea was a “place to grow young,” and the house was meant for entertaining on a grand scale. That page names Willis Polk as the architect and says the house took three years to construct and was completed in 1917. Filoli also describes the house as a Georgian Revival estate.

If you walk through the grounds, Filoli’s site points to the formal garden design: an English-Renaissance style garden with flowerbeds, yew-lined avenues, and structured garden rooms. The property also includes Natural Lands spanning more than 650 acres.

It is open every day from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and visits are docent-led. The best practical move is to start with the house, then let the garden show you how the estate was meant to work as one ensemble.