Howard County's visitor center gets a makeover

A side door leading into the basement of the Historic Ellicott City Post Office reveals a cluttered room — hundreds of brochures in stands and on tables, a front desk covered in informational handouts, and office doors ajar in the background.

For 15 years, the Howard County Visitor Information Center has shared the limited basement area with the tourism offices.

But soon, the visitor center will be moved to the main level and occupy the space where the post office operated from 1939 to 2007, when the county bought the building to use as a community space and an expanded visitors center.

In addition to the wealth of brochures and handouts already available in the visitors center, the new "welcome center," as it will be called, will have a computer station and a meeting room. With its location on the main level, the center also will have a larger entrance that faces Main Street.

The center is "not just for visitors; they can also be a great source for residents, businesses," said Rachelina Bonacci, executive director of Howard County Tourism. " 'Welcome' is just a more appropriate term."

Bonacci said she and her team have felt cramped in the basement of the old post office, especially when hosting larger crowds of visitors.

"We're absolutely honored and delighted that this investment is being made in the welcome center," she said. "It will be really wonderful to welcome persons in a space that is far more welcoming."

More visitors expected

The visitors center hosts more than 20,000 guests a year, roughly 30 to 40 on an average day, welcome center manager Ed Lilley said. He expects those numbers to increase after the renovation.

Bonacci agreed: "I think persons are going to linger and they're going to engage our team a little bit more."

After the renovation, she said, the visitors center might expand its hours of operation, now 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Industry studies show the more time people spend at a welcome center, the more time and money they spend at the destination, officials said.

The $525,000 building renovation is being completed in two phases. For the next three months or so, crews will be renovating the main level, which involves knocking down a few walls to open up the space and adding walls in the back of the building to create the meeting room, which will be available for businesses and community groups. Phase I is estimated to cost $230,000 to $240,000.

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat who represents part of Howard County, leases office space from the county on the main level and will continue to do so after the renovation.

Phase II, expected to start shortly after Phase I is finished, involves renovating the basement space, which will still be used as office and storage space for Howard County Tourism.

The work is expected to be done by year's end.

The project is being funded by $325,000 in state bond bills and $200,000 in county bonds. It took four years for the project to get underway because of the tough economic climate and the extra hurdles involved in renovating a historic building, County Executive Ken Ulman said.

"We're very pleased that we're moving forward," he said. "We really hope and believe it'll become a much enhanced resource for tourism and the businesses on Main Street."

Having the entrance to the welcome center face Main Street should help with that, Ulman added, explaining that the side entrance to the basement "is really tricky to find."