<html><head></head><body><div class="ydpd82478a8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">On some past occasions we have talked about Filoli. With the rainy days, I have been going through my overcrowded book shelves. <br></div><div class="ydpd82478a8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br></div><div class="ydpd82478a8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Two books about the Bay Area mentioned other manors built in the same era. One was Ralston, now part of College of Notre Dame in Belmont.</div><div class="ydpd82478a8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br></div><div class="ydpd82478a8yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">What I hadn't realized before was that there was more than just people with lots of money from gold mines, banks or rail roads. The <span>1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition was a catalyst. The 1% of the 1% of San Francisco needed to have appropriate places to host private parties for the visiting royalty from Europe or the old-money from the East Coast.</span><br></div></body></html>