BUSINESS PROFILE:
Name: Terry Smith
Business: Ticonderoga Heritage Museum & Visitor Center
Title: President
Years in Business: 40
Q: Can you briefly describe your business?
The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum’s mission is to advance the awareness and appreciation of the industrial history of Ticonderoga through preservation and interpretation. The museum features educational exhibits of the area’s industrial heritage, holds free children workshops in the summer, contains a gift shop of unique items, and is a visitors center for tourists.
Q: What is your product or service specialty?
The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum’s specialty is area industrial history. The museum also provides information for and about the town of Ticonderoga through partnership with Ticonderoga’s Area Chamber of Commerce by offering information and distributing brochures about local area events and attractions.
Q: How did your business get started?
The brick 1888 building housing the Ticonderoga Heritage Museum was made available to the town when International Paper relocated to another portion of Ticonderoga. A group of citizens felt that there was a need to promote our area’s industrial history by creating a museum dedicated to that topic and a visitors center that would also help to promote our community.
Q: Why do you recommend people visit the museum?
A: The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum offers exhibits that are of immense interest to adults, but which children can also learn from and enjoy. Our very popular free summer workshop series for children have been held for over 25 years.
Q: What makes you the most proud of the museum?
We are proud of the commitment we have made to bring this unique building, dedicated to centuries of local industries, to what it is today through donations, grants, town assistance, and much dedication.
Q: What do you most want people to know about you?
The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum is located in Ticonderoga, a scenic town between and connected by two lakes and with an unbelievable amount of history. We heighten curiosity of the region with our exhibits and entertain children with imaginative programs. The museum is a non-profit organization located on the edge of Bicentennial Park along the La Chute River and is a Heritage Visitor Center along the Lakes to Locks Passage. Since tourism is a large part of many of Ticonderoga’s businesses, our visitor center will be able to assist people to continue to explore Ticonderoga’s heritage by providing area brochures and directions.
Q: What is your key to success?
The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum enjoys a dedicated group of board members, staff and volunteers who help with exhibits and our various programs. Their hard work and persistence has brought the Ticonderoga Heritage Museum to an enviable position in the community. Our museum gleans many compliments from visitors and local people alike.
Q: Complete the following sentence: A really great day for our museum is when…
…we realize the number of compliments the museum receives each year regarding our exhibits, children’s programs, local history information, and the compliments of the customer service provided by our staff.