Although the house is predominantly modified Georgian in style, other major architectural traditions are also represented in its design. The arched window heads of the first floor, the French doors, the exterior brick laid in Flemish bond, and details of the trim are from the Stuart period, while the tiled roof is in the Spanish tradition. This eclecticism reflects a Golden Age in California’s history, free from the conventional rules of design and exuding a pride in creativity and expression. The floor plan is U-shaped, with the servant’s wing on one side of the front courtyard and the ballroom on the other. 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. The spacious major rooms have ceiling heights of seventeen feet, while the ballroom ceiling is twenty-two-and-a-half feet high. There are forty-three rooms and seventeen fireplaces. Since Filoli opened for public view in 1975, furnishing the house has been an ongoing process. Mrs. Roth donated many of the furnishings that she had used in the house when it was her home. Welcome donations were made by friends of Mrs. Roth, and by other generous donors. The goal of furnishing the house has been to furnish it as it might have been when the house was occupied. The major gift of eighteenth-century English furnishings in 1998 by Melville Martin has allowed us to present the house looking much like the home that it was. Various plants from the greenhouses, along with the flower arrangements, enhance that look.
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