Senator backs Sing Sing museum bid
New York State’s most senior US senator has offered full support for long mooted plans to build a new tourist destination at infamous Sing Sing prison.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said the construction of a museum at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, Westchester County would be one of the first at a still functioning prison and could be a major driver of tourism in the Hudson Valley.
"We have the potential here to create the Alcatraz of the East, a tourist destination that could attract hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of tourists each year," Schumer said.
The museum would be built in a power plant on the site and would cost roughly $25 million to build.
"I am launching a push and will give major elbow grease to get funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities, which provides funding to get this very type of project off the ground," the Senator added.
"Who wouldn’t want to visit Sing Sing prison with stories and artifacts that speak for themselves, including the prison’s old electric chair and not to mention some of the prisoners who spent time here were known throughout the world and are still remembered today."
These include notorious former inmates such as ‘Son of Sam’ murderer David Berkowitz and spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Schumer says the museum would not just document the life and crimes of its most infamous former prisoners but also highlight Sing Sing as a leader in the prison reform movement since the early 1900s.
It’s going to be great for tourism throughout Westchester and the entire Hudson Valley, and has the potential to really bring literally hundreds of millions of tourist dollars, eventually, to the whole Hudson Valley area" said Schumer.
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