It had to be offered to non-profits first. 3 groups bid on it. Don Nelson bid $1, a former woodworker bid but didn’t have a non-profit status yet. Jackie called the business office and found out CR had paid $90,000 for it. We offered $85 – 87,000 )?) and our offer was accepted. We raised $70,000 in private donations, most less than $1000 in three months and took private $5,000 loans for the rest (Alice Knapp, Sue Arnold, Susan Druding).

We took ownership in June 1996, but the house was in bad shape. It had been offered to the fire department to burn down. They declined. We needed a new roof, electricity (Dave Gealey and Ron Cutler), flooring (Jackie), water, ivy hedge removal and more. We weren’t able to open to the public until 2005. In the meantime, Jackie hosted classes at her Henhouse Studios.

The northern building (now the tapestry studio) was built for storage of the many donations of materials and equipment by Greg Tregoning, 1998

Photo: 1998 Vision Meeting

On-site classes in the new classroom began in earnest in 2012.

Greg Tregoning built the courtyard in 2013 with a starter grant of $4000 from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County.
Total cost was about $10,000

Shortly after we closed again to in-person activities other than volunteers and board members until January 2022 “Alive and Well” members work gallery show which had no in-person opening.

After several pandemic postponements, Adriane Nicolaisen’s class “Start Weaving, Keep Weaving, Weave Better” was able to happen with half the students.

We hosted 17 different classes in 2024 including Indigo Dyeing, Boro Mending, Cordage Necklace construction, Needle Felting along with our usual Beginning Weaving and Tapestry Weaving classes. In addition to our paid classes, with a grant from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County, we hosted free classes which fell under our Creative Threads leadership team.

Along with supporting our Mission, we started tackling the problem of deferred maintenance with our campus. The first big item was fixing the classroom. Both the North and West walls needed the siding to be replaced and the entire building needed a permanent foundation. Inside the main house, the office space was converted to a gallery for the Textile Study Collection and Roberta’s studio room was cleared out, painted and transformed into our spinning room.

Along with supporting our Mission, we started tackling the problem of deferred maintenance with our campus. The first big item was fixing the classroom. Both the North and West walls needed the siding to be replaced and the entire building needed a permanent foundation. Inside the main house, the office space was converted to a gallery for the Textile Study Collection and Roberta’s studio room was cleared out, painted and transformed into our spinning room.

We looked at our gallery spaces and allotted resources to upgrade and revamp the interiors and lighting. We dedicated the new small gallery to our long-time supporter and co-founder. It is now the Lolli Jacobsen Gallery – so well deserved. We also finished barcoding the library collection! This was several years in the making starting with a grant from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County in 2022. Thanks go to Joanie and her support team for tackling the 4500+ books in our collection. We hosted a very special First Friday in June to celebrate our 30-year anniversary.

The WSSG is now 58 members strong and meeting regularly.

We continue to support the Dye Garden at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden and weave at the Guest House Museum in Fort Bragg on a regular basis.