Lower Manhattan's 9/11 Tribute Museum — nearly 30,000 square feet of space three blocks from the World Trade Center site — will close Wednesday afternoon,just weeks later. marks the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attack.
The Greenwich Street Museum, which first appeared on nearby Liberty Street in 2006, has struggled since the onset of his COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
"His two-thirds of our annual income comes from admission fees," said Jennifer, co-founder of the museum and CEO of the 9/11 Families Association. Adams Webb told The Post. “We closed completely for six months in 2020. We had an average of 300,000 visitors a year…and last year we had a total of 26,000 visitors, so our earned income completely disappeared.
The museum, a destination for education and community support among survivors and families of those who died on 9/11, moved to 92 Greenwich Street in 2017. The first six months of 2022 had approximately the same number of visitors as the whole of 2021, but the still low visitor numbers coupled with outstanding capital liabilities meant that difficult decisions had to be reached.
"There's no way you can dig this out at this speed," said Adams-Webb. "The state or city needs to work with other partners to be able to say, 'We care about you.'
The 9/11 Tribute Museum is located on the site of the former Twin Towers. It was a stop for American and international visitors. stood. But now, the gallery, which has been visited by more than five million people since 2006, has been dismantled and the artifacts sent to the New York State Museum in Albany, where the majority of the collection is stored. (An online presence helps maintain educational resources and support.)
Still, there will be no home base. According to Adams Webb, without government intervention, it is unlikely to return.
"We are very proud of what we have achieved, but this is not where the 9/11 community comes," she said. "It's a big loss for the people who called this place their second home. We were able to come here and share our stories, to support our community and educate our visitors who come here." No other museum has two missions."
