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City hands over Welcome Center to the national park | Paterson Times

City hands over Welcome Center to the national park

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The city’s governing body recently voted to handover the “Welcome Center” located at the McBride Avenue extension to the National Park Service.

The park service rehabilitated the interior and exterior of the building formally known as the “Great Falls Historic District Cultural Center.” In the process, the park service renamed the center as the “Welcome Center,” redesigning the building’s exterior with new colors.

Darren Boch, superintendent of the Great Falls National Park, said the building’s interior is presently open area. Boch said the park service has hired a local design and fabrication company Exhibitology, based out of George Street, to design the building’s interior.

“By spring, we’re going to have a store in there, the first store in a national park that’s going to sell things related to Paterson,” said Boch. The center will also have a reception area and several exibits about the city.

The center is presently open for visitors. “We’re operating that now with the Paterson Museum. We’re staffing it seven days a week,” said Boch. With the advent of autumn the center will be staffed five days a week.

During Tuesday’s unanimous vote to hand over the property to the park, Andre Sayegh, 6th Ward councilman said, “This is a very significant step for the Great Falls National Park.” The councilman invited residents to visit the center, if they haven’t already.

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