A verdant green mountain range to the West and and gentle rolling hills - caked in a thick layer of dry, yellow grass - to the East border the valley through which Interstate 280 snakes, one of the paradigmatic Bay Area highways. A meandering cruise down 280 and into Woodside will bring you to Filoli, an equally paradigmatic Bay Area landmark harboring 654 acres of pristine, painstakingly manicured gardens, ponds, lawns, woods, and sprawling fields.
Resting in the heart of the natural splendor is a magnificent Georgian revival-style mansion which once housed a spectacularly wealthy family after its construction in 1917. In 1977, the property was opened to the public as a nonprofit organization and historical site.
See also: The Palace Of Fine Arts Is A Magnificent Reminder Of San Francisco's Enduring Resilience
View this post on Instagram
While Filoli is open to sightseers year-round, the summer months offer the perfect climate in which to really experience the estate’s inimitable grandeur. Fortunately, beginning in June, Filoli holds its doors open a few hours past the usual closing time every Thursday and allows attendees to luxuriate in the golds and yellows of a summer sunset penetrating the canopies while reclining on the lawn, sipping a cocktail, listening to live music, and munching a taco or three. A Summer Night at Filoli truly captures the quintessence of the season.
Arrive right at 5 pm for easy parking and a short check-in line. Now, two path diverge before you: one leading around the mansion into the positively palatial grounds and gardens for which Filoli is known, and the other leading to the interior of the mansion itself.
View this post on Instagram
Filoli’s innards are as much a spectacle for the senses as its surrounding landscape. The house is structured like a museum and winds visitors through period-accurate restorations of its key spaces: servants’s quarters, the massive kitchen harboring a closet-sized safe in which the original owners stored their water and silver, dining room, tea den, piano room, and a study stuffed to the brim with a complete set of every encyclopedia imaginable. High ceilings, staggeringly sized wall paintings, and a dense menagerie of various treasures - be them china, tapestries, or miniature statues - wait around every corner, turning a walk-through of the interior into a richly rewarding historical scavenger hunt.
After emerging from that time capsule of the mid-1920s, make your away around the mansion and to the real showstopper: the backyard. Resist the temptation to dash instantly to the food and beverage grove and carve out some time to amble lazily through the property’s stunningly lush gardens. A feast for the nose as well as the eyes, the garden boasts roughly 500 rose blooms each summer (meaning it’d be criminal to not stop and smell the roses).
See also: The Impactful & Inspiring History of The SF National AIDS Memorial Grove And Quilt
View this post on Instagram
The sunflowers constitute another dazzling facet of the gardens’ offerings, many of which tower over adults of average height. The brick pathways will eventually lead you to shaded nooks and hidden ponds ripe for contemplation, meditation, or, more importantly, fairy house-building.
View this post on Instagram
The nexus of Filoli’s Summer Nights is definitively its pool, surrounding lawn space, and adjacent food and beverage grove where the Cochinita Food Truck and Blue Bird Bar can be found. Grab some tacos, a local ale or cocktail, find a spot on the grass, break out the lawn chairs, and enjoy the delicate stylings of the Irish Session Band.
Here you’ll find couples lying resplendent on a shared picnic blanket, fathers giving their toddlers piggyback rides, and friends exchanging stories and guffaws with one another. All this as the sun dips below the hillside, casting an ethereal glow on these almost absurdly idyllic environs.
View this post on Instagram
At the risk of sounding trite, magic is well and truly in the air at Filoli’s Summer Nights, which are an assured must-visit this summer (and every subsequent summer).
See also: The Best Shops To Treat Yourself At Palo Alto's Posh Town & Country Village
Photography by: Kevin Lanceplaine/Unsplash
A verdant green mountain range to the West and and gentle rolling hills - caked in a thick layer of dry, yellow grass - to the East border the valley through which Interstate 280 snakes, one of the paradigmatic Bay Area highways. A meandering cruise down 280 and into Woodside will bring you to Filoli, an equally paradigmatic Bay Area landmark harboring 654 acres of pristine, painstakingly manicured gardens, ponds, lawns, woods, and sprawling fields.
Resting in the heart of the natural splendor is a magnificent Georgian revival-style mansion which once housed a spectacularly wealthy family after its construction in 1917. In 1977, the property was opened to the public as a nonprofit organization and historical site.
See also: The Palace Of Fine Arts Is A Magnificent Reminder Of San Francisco's Enduring Resilience
View this post on Instagram
While Filoli is open to sightseers year-round, the summer months offer the perfect climate in which to really experience the estate’s inimitable grandeur. Fortunately, beginning in June, Filoli holds its doors open a few hours past the usual closing time every Thursday and allows attendees to luxuriate in the golds and yellows of a summer sunset penetrating the canopies while reclining on the lawn, sipping a cocktail, listening to live music, and munching a taco or three. A Summer Night at Filoli truly captures the quintessence of the season.
Arrive right at 5 pm for easy parking and a short check-in line. Now, two path diverge before you: one leading around the mansion into the positively palatial grounds and gardens for which Filoli is known, and the other leading to the interior of the mansion itself.
View this post on Instagram
Filoli’s innards are as much a spectacle for the senses as its surrounding landscape. The house is structured like a museum and winds visitors through period-accurate restorations of its key spaces: servants’s quarters, the massive kitchen harboring a closet-sized safe in which the original owners stored their water and silver, dining room, tea den, piano room, and a study stuffed to the brim with a complete set of every encyclopedia imaginable. High ceilings, staggeringly sized wall paintings, and a dense menagerie of various treasures - be them china, tapestries, or miniature statues - wait around every corner, turning a walk-through of the interior into a richly rewarding historical scavenger hunt.
After emerging from that time capsule of the mid-1920s, make your away around the mansion and to the real showstopper: the backyard. Resist the temptation to dash instantly to the food and beverage grove and carve out some time to amble lazily through the property’s stunningly lush gardens. A feast for the nose as well as the eyes, the garden boasts roughly 500 rose blooms each summer (meaning it’d be criminal to not stop and smell the roses).
See also: The Impactful & Inspiring History of The SF National AIDS Memorial Grove And Quilt
View this post on Instagram
The sunflowers constitute another dazzling facet of the gardens’ offerings, many of which tower over adults of average height. The brick pathways will eventually lead you to shaded nooks and hidden ponds ripe for contemplation, meditation, or, more importantly, fairy house-building.
View this post on Instagram
The nexus of Filoli’s Summer Nights is definitively its pool, surrounding lawn space, and adjacent food and beverage grove where the Cochinita Food Truck and Blue Bird Bar can be found. Grab some tacos, a local ale or cocktail, find a spot on the grass, break out the lawn chairs, and enjoy the delicate stylings of the Irish Session Band.
Here you’ll find couples lying resplendent on a shared picnic blanket, fathers giving their toddlers piggyback rides, and friends exchanging stories and guffaws with one another. All this as the sun dips below the hillside, casting an ethereal glow on these almost absurdly idyllic environs.
View this post on Instagram
At the risk of sounding trite, magic is well and truly in the air at Filoli’s Summer Nights, which are an assured must-visit this summer (and every subsequent summer).
See also: The Best Shops To Treat Yourself At Palo Alto's Posh Town & Country Village
Photography by: Kevin Lanceplaine/Unsplash
