Philanthropist Developed Ghirardelli Square : Ship Heiress Lurline Matson Roth Dies

Lurline Matson Roth, daughter of the founder of the Matson shipping line whose palatial 714-acre estate was for years the scene of some of Northern California’s most elegant affairs, has died at a Burlingame hospital.

She died Wednesday, one day after her 95th birthday.

A party had been held for the philanthropist on Tuesday, but she was too ill to attend. The birthday celebration was videotaped, however, and she saw it shortly before dying.

Mrs. Roth, who was named after the wooden sailing ship Lurline, a name since given to four other Matson vessels, was both a prominent hostess and an architectural innovator.

She and her son, William Matson Roth, an unsuccessful California gubernatorial candidate in 1974, purchased an old chocolate factory on San Francisco Bay and renovated it, opening a complex of shops and restaurants as Ghirardelli Square in 1964.

It was a forerunner in the conversion of abandoned factories and fish canneries into tourist attractions.

A native of San Francisco, Mrs. Roth was an avid horsewoman who late in her life still was driving the award-winning trotters she bred on her Why Worry Farm at Woodside.

She and her husband, William P. Roth, who died in 1953, raised three children in the 43-room mansion surrounded by 16 acres of sunken and walled gardens.

Ten years ago Mrs. Roth donated the estate, called Filoli, to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The television series “Dynasty” uses film of the grounds and home as a lead-in for its melodramas.

Mrs. Roth was the daughter of William Matson, a native of Sweden who came to the United States as a cabin boy and built the Matson steamship and real estate empire.

Over the years Mrs. Roth entertained such varied celebrities as pianist Ignace Paderewski and aviator Amelia Earhart, who took her for her first plane ride in 1937. “I was terrified,” Mrs. Roth said later.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Roth is survived by twin daughters, Lurline Coonan and Berenice Spalding.

When those daughters made their debuts at a ball at the family estate in 1939, the party was so lavish that the San Francisco Chronicle commented: “The twins were launched like luxury liners.”

Funeral services are scheduled at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in San Mateo this afternoon.