Hotel Museum, NYC

The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden at 421 East 61st Street in Manhattan has announced the promotion of Acting Director Terri Daly to Museum Director.

A graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Daly holds an M.B.A. from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. She joined the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden in 2003 and has held positions as Interpreter, Educator, and most recently Marketing Manager.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to continue sharing the unique story of the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden in my new role as Director” Daly said in a statement ot the press announcing her new appointment. “As one of the oldest buildings in Manhattan and the only surviving day hotel, the Museum provides visitors with unparalleled insight into the travel, leisure, work, and play of 19th-century New York City.”

“We are so pleased that after more than a decade of experience at the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, Terri Daly has been promoted to Museum Director, ” said Sharon W. Vaino, President General of The Colonial Dames of America, the organization that owns and operates the Museum. “Her business education, fundraising background, and extensive experience in various aspects of the Museum’s work will help to propel the Museum forward as it builds on its recent reaccreditation by the American Alliance of Museums and develops its potential as a lead interpreter of leisure time and travel in Manhattan in the early 19thcentury.”

Constructed in 1799 as a carriage house and converted into a day hotel in 1826, the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden transports the visitor back to the Mount Vernon Hotel, a country resort for New Yorkers escaping the crowded city below 14th Street. The Hotel advertised itself as “free from the noise and dust of the public roads, and fitted up and intended for only the most genteel and respectable” clientele. The eight period rooms interpret the diverse group of people who frequented and worked at the hotel from 1826-1833.

The Museum’s collection consists of approximately 1, 100 items, including 18th and 19th-century ceramics, furniture, kitchen implements, letters, maps, paintings, and prints representing the history of Manhattan’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the history of the Mount Vernon Hotel, and the history of hotels and leisure in 19th-century America.

The Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden is open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm. Admission is $8 Adults, $7 Senior/Students, and free for Children under 12 and Museum Members. Group tours and education programs for grades K-12 can be reserved in advance. Changing exhibitions and public programs are also offered throughout the year.