Connecting people to places that matter is core to Naples Backyard History's "Heritage Tourism" partnership with the
National Trust for Historic Preservation - it is the essence of our mission.
A Message from Our Founder - Lavern Norris Gaynor
Someone once said that if you didn't’ know history, you didn't’know anything. You were like a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree. That person knew the value feeling connected to something and that something was community. When my family came to Naples in 1945, they fell in love with their new community and immediately connected with its people and nature. Our small town community worked together to make Naples a better place to live. These pioneering stewards understood the value of making a place a home their duty to leave this “paradise found” better for all.
We began this venture to showcase the value of local history and to honor the memory of those past Community Stewards who came to this 'final frontier in America' creating the magic in this place we call home along the way. Our job now is to ensure that our initiatives and programs foster and sustain this same sense of community and connectedness into perpetuity. We say these words not as simple rhetoric but as a pledge to you, to those who came before us, and to those who are yet to be born.
