Filoli
“Dynasty House”
The Bourn-Roth Estate”Country House”
Architect: Willis Polk
Built:1917, Woodside, CA

William Bowers Bourn II was born in San Francisco. He was the owner of one of California’s richest gold mines and president of Spring Valley Water Company, supplying San Francisco’s water.
Bourn also ran and controlled the San Francisco Gas Company.
Between the mid 1860s and 1930, San Francisco’s water supply was controlled by the Spring Valley Water Company. Eventually the Hetch Hetchy source was secured for the city, ending Spring Valley’s corrupt monopoly.
I feel I see dear old Filoli going up inch by inch .

. . I realize more and more, as I look for things to go in it what a huge place it is . . .”
– Agnes Bourn to Willis Polk -1916

Following the deaths of William and Agnes Bourn in 1936, the estate was sold the following year to Mr. William P. Roth and Mrs. Lurline Matson Roth, heiress to the Matson Navigation Company. The Roth family built Filoli’s botanic collections of camellias, rhododendrons, and azaleas, notably in the Woodland Garden, and added the serene swimming pool and the screened-in teahouse.

Current Exhibition Filoli “Dynasty House”
The estate operates as Filoli Center, a private, non-profit organization with its own Board of Governors, staff, and volunteers.

David C. Hill Photography