Friends of Dangberg Home Ranch announced this week that significant restoration work at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park has recently been completed.
Two major grants and additional donations from the community made the work possible, and also grown an endowment fund and enabled public access and operational support at the public facility.
The Frances C. and William P. Smallwood Foundation awarded a $18,709 grant earlier this year to assist the non-profit in providing professional services at the park.
The Smallwood grants create a foundation for Friends of Dangberg’s provision of visitor services, arts and history programming, maintenance work, volunteer management, and other activities that keep the park open to the public.
The most recent grant funds a significant part of essential operating expenses, including telecommunications, website costs, and staff whose duties include not only additional fundraising but also the care of the park’s extensive and historic object, photograph, and document collection.
Among Friends of Dangberg’s successes resulting from the Smallwood gift was the ability to apply for and manage a $100,000 grant from Nevada’s Commission for Cultural Centers and Historic Preservation (CCCHP), awarded in summer 2020.
Individual donors also contributed an additional $138,000 to assist Douglas County in preserving three structures at the park.
The 1917 garage and separate carriage house benefitted from masonry, drywall, and electrical repairs. The garage also got a new roof.
Most importantly, the work included extensive repairs to the 1917 gateway, comprised of two ornamented brick pillars designed by Frederic J. Delongchamps, a noted architect credited with many government, private, and commercial buildings in western Nevada.
The gateway and all the buildings at the park are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The park is located at 1450 Highway 88, ¾ mile south of the high school roundabout. The site preserves the home of Heinrich F. Dangberg and his descendants, a prominent ranching family in Carson Valley history that founded Minden in 1905.
The site includes eight historic structures built between 1857 and 1917, along with a large collection of artifacts, documents, and photographs original to the home.
