Youngstown museum visits led to career in D.C.

By KATIE SEMINARA

The Capitol Visitor Center official has fond memories of Youngstown.

YOUNGSTOWN — Although Terrie Rouse left Youngstown when she was just 13, it was here that she took the first steps on her career path into history.

“I remember going to the Butler Institute of Art as a child. It’s quite a gem of an institution,” said Rouse, 56, who is the chief executive officer of visitor services for the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.

Rouse’s father always had an interest in museums and would take Rouse to the Butler and to the Mahoning Valley Historical Society when she was a little girl.

“That’s how I got started in all of this,” she said of those memories that helped shape her career goals.

Rouse started as the CEO of visitor services for the center in September 2007, but the grand opening of the center was at the beginning of this month.

The center is meant to provide visitors to the nation’s capital with the opportunity to learn more about the Constitution, Congress and the history of the Capitol.

The $621 million project took about six years to complete and is a 580,000-square-foot addition to the Capitol building.

“When you first come in, you have what we classically call that awe moment,” said Rouse. “You immediately have that moment of ‘Oh my goodness I didn’t know this was here.’”

When visitors begin their center tour, they visit one of two orientation theaters for a film that introduces them to the Capitol and provides a brief lesson on the early stages of the country’s government.

“You walk away with a quick, but real intense course,” said Rouse of what she called “powerful” orientation films.

Another attraction of the newly opened center is the Exhibition Hall. The 16,500-square-foot hall is filled with original documents, artifacts, videos and two more educational theaters.

At the entrance of the Exhibition Hall there is a replica of the Capitol dome that visitors can touch and peer into the windows of. The dome is an 11-foot model that also includes the paintings that are on the east side of the Rotunda.

Though the model of the dome is at the disposal of visitors, they can get a clear view of the original Capitol dome through skylights in the center’s Great Hall.

One other highlight of the center is the original plaster model for the Statue of Freedom, which is displayed in Emancipation Hall. The statue sits on top of the Capitol dome where visitors can’t admire its detail, whereas the plaster model in the center enables visitors to get up close to the monumental statue.

“Our opening was the 145th anniversary of the Statue of Freedom being placed on top of the Capitol,” Rouse said.

The statue was set in place Dec. 2, 1863, and the center opened Dec. 2, 2008.

Since the opening, about 15,000 visitors have walked through the doors, and Rouse said life at the center has been “memorable.”

“We pulled off a little miracle,” said Rouse — who also celebrated her birthday on opening day. “It was a great birthday present.”

The experience Rouse gained before her job with the center helped make her miracle a possibility.

She was most recently the executive vice president/director of museums for Kansas City’s historic landmark Union Station. Rouse also served as the executive director of the Atlanta Ballet; was president and CEO of the African American Museum in Philadelphia; director of New York Transit Museum; and the executive director at the Children’s Museum of Maine.

“I could not have done this position without those other jobs,” said Rouse of each job leading up to her position with the center.

Rouse earned her bachelor’s degree in intercultural studies from Trinity College. She also earned two master’s degrees, one in professional studies from Cornell University and one in African history from Columbia University.

Though Rouse has moved around for school and jobs, she still remembers growing up across from North High School in Youngstown and taking trips to Woolworth’s downtown with her grandmother.

“It was a great, wholesome way to grow up,” said Rouse, noting that she still comes back to visit.

Rouse’s mother and father moved back to Youngstown about 25 years ago and bought the house that Rouse was reared in.

When work at the center slows down, a visit to Youngstown in the spring is a possibility, said Rouse, who plans to visit the rose gardens at Mill Creek MetroParks, the Butler Institute of American Art and the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor while “spending time going to visit people.”