By Kevin Coughlin
Satellite navigation is here to stay. But Morris County is counting on old-fashioned signs to make tourists stay here longer.
“In an age of GPS, having touchable, physical wayfinding makes a statement that this place matters,” Leslie Bensley, executive director of the Morris County Tourism Bureau, said this week as informational kiosks were dedicated at the Morris Museum and the Washington’s Headquarters Museum.
They are among 19 kiosks being installed this fall at tourist venues across the county, a $150,000 project funded by the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, the New Jersey Historic Trust, the Morris County Park Commission and the F. M. Kirby Foundation.
“For the first time, the F.M. Kirby Foundation has some direction,” joked S. Dillard Kirby at Wednesday’s brief ceremony outside the Morris Museum in Morris Township.
Kirby described the kiosks as “menus of the key cultural and historical treasures of Morris County. You can take an appetizer or two or a full course meal, and come back for dessert another day. They’re really the link that brings together this five-star county.”
The kiosks are part of a plan to replace signs from 1999 with 300 signs that are more stylish and more legible. Everything began with an $80,000 study in 2010. A $133,000 pilot program installed 22 signs and two kiosks in 2013. Bensley said she now seeks $1 million for new vehicular signs.
Tourism officials contend that visitors will stay here longer if they can navigate more easily. Repeat visits also could increase by as much as 30 percent, according to the tourism bureau.
“I think they’ll help everyone find their way to places that matter,” Bensley said of the kiosks, designed by the Butler Sign Co. of Wayne. “Often people come to sites without any knowledge of the preponderance of recreational assets a stone’s throw away.”
“Having our presence at 18 other sites will give us tremendous exposure to drive traffic here,” said Linda Moore, executive director of the Morris Museum. “And it helps us to be a good community partner.”
Approximately 100,000 people visit the museum annually, Moore said.
After unveiling the museum kiosk, officials drove about a minute down the Columbia Turnpike to repeat the exercise at the Ford Mansion / Washington’s Headquarters Museum in Morristown.
Here’s the tourism bureau list of 19 kiosks.
Kiosks Installed as of August 2015:
1. Ford Mansion-Washington Headquarters
2. Jockey Hollow
3. Macculloch Hall Historical Museum
4. Morris Museum
5. Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms
6. Acorn Hall
7. Mayo Performing Arts Center (replacing existing kiosk in pocket park 9/15 )
8. Morris County Library
Morris County Park Commission Kiosks — to be installed Fall 2015
9. Fosterfields Living Historical Farm
10. Central Park on the former Greystone campus
11. Cultural Center
12. Cooper Mill
13. Historic Speedwell
14. Frelinghuysen Arboretum
15. Willowwood Arboretum
16. Bamboo Brook
17. Seaton Hackney
18. Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center, Chatham
19. Tourne Park
