Philo is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

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 S ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, 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 nea ...

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

Navarro River The Navarro River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 9, 2011 river in Mendocino County, California, United States. It flows northwest through the California Coas ...

, Philo is the home of KZYX, the local

public radio Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive ...

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 codes 707 and 369 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northwestern part of the U.S. state of California. The area codes serve part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the North Coast. ...

. 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 U ...

Geography

Philo is located at geographical coordinates 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. Rou ...

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 Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

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

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Philo had a population of 319. The population density was . The racial makeup of Philo was 110 (34.5%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0 (0.0%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 8 (2.5%) Native American, 0 (0.0%) Asian, 0 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, 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 th ...

, 107 (33.5%) from other races, and 94 (29.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 209 persons (65.5%). The whole population lived in households. There were 113 households, out of which 43 (38.1%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 47 (41.6%) were married-couple households, 7 (6.2%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 16 (14.2%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 43 (38.1%) had a male householder with no partner present. 38 households (33.6%) were one person, and 12 (10.6%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.82. There were 66

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(58.4% of all households). The age distribution was 68 people (21.3%) under the age of 18, 28 people (8.8%) aged 18 to 24, 92 people (28.8%) aged 25 to 44, 84 people (26.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 47 people (14.7%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 39.8years. For every 100 females, there were 151.2 males. There were 129 housing units at an average density of , of which 113 (87.6%) were occupied. Of these, 53 (46.9%) were owner-occupied, and 60 (53.1%) were occupied by renters.

Education

Students in Philo attend Anderson Valley Elementary School and Anderson Valley Junior-Senior High School. Both are operated by the Anderson Valley Unified School District and are located in Boonville.

Notable residents

* Bernice Bing, artist

Politics

In the

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

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

Notes and references