Year Constructed
1917
Year Opened to the Public
1977
Property Acres
654
House and Garden Acres
16
We acknowledge that Filoli is located on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone people who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula.
By 1850, the Spanish occupation and mission system had decimated the vast majority of the Indigenous population. This area was parceled out as a 12,545-acre Mexican land grant and officially mapped in 1856 after the United States annexed California. The rancho was later broken up into smaller pieces — one eventually became the Filoli estate.
After the 1906 earthquake and fire, wealthy San Franciscans migrated south along the Peninsula to escape the city. Grand estates popped up in Hillsborough and Woodside. Though the Peninsula seemed more insulated from earthquakes, the Bourns went on to build their new house 200 yards away from the San Andreas fault.
An early view of the newly completed Filoli from Cañada Road in 1918. The first owner William Bourn dubbed the estate Filoli, a made-up word drawn from the first letters of his personal motto: “FIght for a just cause; LOve your fellow man; LIve a good life.”
Timeline
900 to 1500
Indigenous Ohlone people maintain a seasonal village in the area.
1769
Spanish explorers from the Portolá Expedition camp in present-day San Mateo County on their return south from San Francisco Bay.
1800s
The land in this area is used for ranching and logging, as control of the California territory passes through Spanish, Mexican, and American hands.
1914
The Bourns purchase 709 acres for $89,000 ($2.3 million in 2020 currency).
1917
Construction of the Filoli House is completed.
1936
Agnes and William Bourn pass away.
1937
The Roth family buys Filoli.
1975 - 1981
Lurline Roth gifts 125 acres, including the House and formal garden, to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
1977
The nonprofit Filoli Center purchases an additional 528 acres from the Roth family, and opens to the public.