A Tragedy for America…

Lower Manhattan’s 9/11 Tribute Museum is shutting down, just weeks before 21 years will have passed since the attack in 2001.

The 9/11 Tribute Museum opened in 2006 and offered tours led by volunteers who had lost a family member or were connected in some other way to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The nearly 30,000-square-foot museum is located 3 blocks from the World Trade Center and is a historical site for survivors and those who wish to pay tribute to those who have tragically lost their lives.

The museum will maintain an online presence but the physical location will close.

The Museum has Struggled to Stay Profitable Since the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Greenwich Street museum, which opened in 2006 nearby on Liberty Street, has struggled to stay profitable since the 2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jennifer Adams, the museum’s co-founder and CEO said that financial problems due to the Covid-19 pandemic determined the museum’s fate despite recent fundraisers.

“Two-thirds of our income revenue annually comes from our earned income from admissions,” Jennifer Adams-Webb, co-founder of the museum and the CEO of the September 11th Families’ Association, told The Post. “We were completely closed for six months in 2020. We had been averaging 300,000 visitors a year … and last year we had a total of 26,000 visitors, so it completely annihilated our earned income.”

The first half of 2022 had the same number of visitors as the entirety of 2021, but outstanding capital debt combined with still-low visitation required a decision to be made on whether or not the museum remained open.

“There’s no way we’re going to be able to dig out of this at this rate,” said Adams-Webb. “We need the state or the city to step in with other partners to be able to say, ‘We value you. We want to save this organization,’ but at this point, we can’t continue to dig into a hole.”

Ex-Cuomo aide slams New York for handing $1 billion to billionaire owners of Buffalo Bills’ instead of saving the 9/11 museum

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ex-secretary, Melissa DeRosa, tweeted the following –

This cannot stand.

The State handed $1B+ over to the billionaire owners of the Buffalo Bills — they have to stop this.#priorities

NYC’s 9/11 Tribute Museum to close: ‘It’s a huge loss’ NYC’s 9/11 Tribute Museum to close: ‘It’s a huge loss’ https://t.co/igbTDoirna

— Melissa DeRosa (@melissadderosa) August 17, 2022

A destination for education and for community support among survivors and family members of those who died on 9/11, the museum moved to its 92 Greenwich St. location in 2017.

The 9/11 Tribute Museum had been a stopping point for American and international visitors along the path of visiting the Statue of Liberty before heading to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, right where the Twin Towers once stood. But now, the galleries — visited by more than 5 million people since 2006 — will be disassembled for artifacts to be sent to the New York State Museum in Albany, which will keep the bulk of the collection. (An online presence will serve to keep educational resources and support going.)

Without government intervention, according to Adams-Webb, the museum is unlikely to return.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, but … the place for the 9/11 community to come is not here,” she said. “It’s a huge loss for those people who called this their second home, where they could come and share their story … There’s no museum that has the dual mission we have to support the community and also educate visitors that come here.”

NEVER FORGET?…

The attack in Manhattan on September 11th will never be forgotten, killing more than 3,000 people and affecting millions of families.