Elaine Reed, president and CEO of the Naples Historical Society, has announced she’ll retire at the end of 2024, leaving an institution substantially more robust than the one she joined. Her accomplishments include:

• Growth from a single building, Historic Palm Cottage at 137 12th Ave. S., to add the guest house as part of its public environment. The society also purchased the neighboring house, along with its guest house, as the Smith Exhibit Hall, giving it a campus horizon of lower profile buildings of the older Naples style. Administration was moved to a building offsite on Broad Avenue.

• An array of educational programs, from student group visits to Chickee Chats, the monthly public series of historical discussions that spans January to April. Reed also added walking tours of Old Naples to augment the Palm Cottage tours, the only ones that were in place when she arrived.

• The landscaping and upgrading of the Norris Gardens next to Palm Cottage, adding the chickee hut where many programs take place. It has also become a venue for social events, including weddings.

Reed will continue in her position through 2024, giving her 18 years with the society. She said she couldn’t say what she considered her major achievement.

“To build an organization from the ground up encompasses almost every initiative and program,” she said. “I’ve started many organizations in my career. This one is the one that rings true to who I am and what’s important, and I’ve loved every minute of it.”

Her most recent accomplishment was supervising the restoration of Palm Cottage after Hurricane Ian slammed through it in September 2022, clogging the first floor with nearly 20 inches of mud and debris.

Everything had to be cleaned and dried, a nearly monthlong process, before it could be restored or removed for restoration. The main floor’s irreplaceable 1895 Dade County pine had to be taken up, board by board, resanded and re-installed.

The hurricane was not a factor in her decision to retire; nor did it delay it, Reed said. “I’ve been through other storms and COVID and other kinds of chaos, so the hurricane did not at all impact my decision,” she said. In a letter to society members, she said that with her son reaching adulthood she now had the freedom to travel, and she has wanted to do that.

It was still a difficult decision, Reed said in the letter, praising longtime board member and former historical society chair Mary S. Smith for her guidance and support: “The Society was not merely a job to me; it became a part of me and contributed to who I am today. Please know that I have enormous gratitude for all of you who have believed in my leadership.”

Reed said she would be available part-time after 2024 if the society were to need it.