Reframing the Whimsy Garden Project

In 2005, a community endeavor known as the Whimsy Garden Project ran into great difficulty and was in danger of being abandoned. Foreclosure on the property was imminent. The person in charge of the project, remembering my prior involvement 18 months earlier, asked for help in attempting to save the project. I agreed to take the leading role in getting the project "back on track". My work on the Whimsy Garden became my field placement required for my Master's in Sociology at Humboldt State University. My actions linked to meeting a number of key objectives: recruiting a new board of directors, incorporation as a non-profit, finding a new entity to underwrite the mortgage on the property, and soliciting new partners to move the project forward successfully. I also led a visioning session for a successful re-framing of the project as the Ryan Family Historic House and Garden Project. Within this new frame the project was able to once more move forward toward a successful outcome. In this master's project document, I provide descriptive detail on the history of what became the Ryan Family Historic House and Garden Project, as well as my own work with the project as linked to my field placement. In addition, I draw on sociological theory to frame my work and the project within a larger literature on community development, social capital and historic preservation.