84 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {home & design} ORIGIN STORY building filoli words by JOHANNA HARLOW PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: LARISSA CLEVLAND PHOTOGRAPHY - FILOLI / FILOLI It’s hard not to get swept up in the verdant splendor of Filoli’s blossoming cherry trees, daffodil meadow, succulent-lined sunken garden and seemingly endless flurry of flowers—but the historic manor at the center of these gardens deserves your attention too. Will you come explore as we step into this 54,000-square-foot Georgian masterpiece and unlock its stories? Agnes & the Architect To acquaint yourself with the Filoli mansion, you need to understand the hands that shaped it and the minds that imagined it. Constructed between 1915 and 1917 in Woodside, this 56-room home was built for the aging and affluent Agnes and William Bourn, who forged their fortune from the Empire Gold Mine and Spring Valley Water Company. “They said, ‘A place to grow young,’” says Willa Brock, interim director of collections and interpretation at
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==