Philo is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

Mendocino County Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza) is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United Sta ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It is located northwest of Boonville, at an elevation of . The population was 319 at the 2020 census. Philo is located in

Anderson Valley Anderson Valley is a sparsely populated region in western Mendocino County in Northern California. Located approximately north of San Francisco, the name "Anderson Valley" applies broadly to several rural, unincorporated communities in or near ...

in western Mendocino County. Situated along Indian Creek as it flows into the

Navarro River , name_native_lang = , name_other = , name_etymology = , image = Navarro_River.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = The Navarro River near its mouth. , map = , map_size ...

, Philo is the home of

KZYX KZYX (90.7 FM), is a National Public Radio member station in Philo, California. The studios are located at 9300 Highway 128 in Philo, CA, and the transmitter is located on Cold Springs Mountain (near Philo, CA) in the State of California Departm ...

, the local

public radio Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

station. Two small specialty lumber mills in Philo are all that remain of a once vigorous timber economy in Anderson Valley. Philo is the heart of the Anderson Valley wine region. The first post office opened in 1888. The ZIP Code is 95466. The community is inside

area code 707 Area code 707 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California. It was created by a split of area code 415 on March 1, 1959. It serves part of the northern San Francisco ...

. Two versions of how Philo was named are current: first, that its founder Cornelius Prather named it after his favorite female cousin; second, that he named it for his former home at

Philo, Illinois Philo is a village about nine miles south of Urbana in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,392 at the 2020 census. Geography Philo is located three miles south of Urbana township and six miles south of the city of Urba ...

Geography

Philo is located at

geographical coordinates The geographic coordinate system (GCS) is a spherical or ellipsoidal coordinate system for measuring and communicating positions directly on the Earth as latitude and longitude. It is the simplest, oldest and most widely used of the various ...

39° 3′ 57″ North, 123° 26′ 42″ West.

California State Route 128 State Route 128 (SR 128) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California, connecting the Mendocino coast to the Sacramento Valley, through the state's Wine Country. It runs from State Route 1 near Albion to Interstate 505 in Winters. Rout ...

leads southeast (up the valley) to Boonville and northwest (downriver) to State Route 1 near Navarro Beach on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the CDP covers an area of , all of it recorded as land.

Demographics

The

2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

reported that Philo had a population of 349. The population density was . The racial makeup of Philo was 171 (49.0%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 2 (0.6%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 4 (1.1%) Native American, 5 (1.4%)

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 0 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, 157 (45.0%) from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 10 (2.9%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 204 persons (58.5%). The Census reported that 329 people (94.3% of the population) lived in households, 5 (1.4%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 15 (4.3%) were institutionalized. There were 98 households, out of which 47 (48.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 37 (37.8%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 12 (12.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 17 (17.3%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 13 (13.3%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2 (2.0%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 24 households (24.5%) were made up of individuals, and 9 (9.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.36. There were 66

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

(67.3% of all households); the average family size was 3.64. The population was spread out, with 113 people (32.4%) under the age of 18, 37 people (10.6%) aged 18 to 24, 86 people (24.6%) aged 25 to 44, 81 people (23.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 32 people (9.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.4 years. For every 100 females, there were 118.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 122.6 males. There were 117 housing units at an average density of , of which 35 (35.7%) were owner-occupied, and 63 (64.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0%; the rental vacancy rate was 1.5%. 104 people (29.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 225 people (64.5%) lived in rental housing units.

Education

Students in Philo attend Anderson Valley Elementary School and Anderson Valley Junior-Senior High School. Both are located in Boonville.

Notable residents

Bernice Bing Bernice Bing (10 April 1936 – 18 August 1998) was a Chinese American lesbian artist involved in the San Francisco Bay Area art scene in the 1960s. She was known for her interest in the Beats and Zen Buddhism, and for the "calligraphy-inspir ...

, artist *

Swami Tripurari Bhaktivedanta Tripurari (), also known as Swami BV Tripurari and formerly as Tripurari Swami, is an American author, poet, and guru, described as "a prominent master in the Gaudiya Vaishnava lineage", and "one of the leading practitioners of B ...

, author, poet, and guru

Politics

In the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

, Philo is in , and . Federally, Philo is in .

Notes and references