Do you know that years before the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was built at the World Trade Center, a storefront visitor center across from Ground Zero opened? I discovered the 9/11 Tribute Museum in 2005 shortly after it opened and was amazed at what that small storefront held. It exhibited twisted steel from Ground Zero, a photo gallery of the 9/11 victims, and other artifacts and gave visitors a chance to leave messages. But it became best known for walking tours of the World Trade Center site, led by relatives of the dead, survivors, rescue and recovery workers, and people who lived nearby on 9/11.

 

The Tribute Museum was founded in 2004, by victims’ relatives who decided to turn a former deli, steps away from Ground Zero, into a center for commemoration of the 2001 terror attacks. The day I visited, I didn’t take a tour but went inside to view the artifacts and leave a written message describing my feelings about 9/11.

 

The Museum drew 100,000 visitors in just its first four months. Over the years, it also provided over 900 volunteer tour guides with an outlet for their grief, pain and sharing of emotional memories. However, the Museum was always dwarfed after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was opened. The main difference between the Tribute Museum and the larger, nearby 9/11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero was the Tribute’s Museum focus on first-hand stories from people who were directly affected more than on Ground Zero artifacts.

 

Eighteen years and over five million visitors later, this gem of a museum is closing due to its millions of dollars of debt. Financial difficulties began in 2017 when the museum moved to a much bigger space a few blocks further from the World Trade Center site. The move exhausted the museum’s reserves and increased its rent. In spite of grants and loans and a forgiven federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, the museum could not make ends meet. A six month closure during the pandemic drastically reduced intake of attendance admission and tour fees. Bigger is not always better. I haven’t visited the National September 11 Memorial & Museum because of its long lines to get in. All I know is that the small Tribute Museum was welcoming and indeed a tribute to those who lost loved ones on that horrible day.