(January 2006) NEW ORLEANS, La. - Confederate Memorial Hall is on the verge of reopening more than four months after Hurricane Katrina. But staffers worry that reduced tourism to the hard-hit city could spell trouble for a museum that depends heavily on admissions fees.

"I don't know how we're going to survive," said Curator Patricia Ricci, who has worked at the museum for the past 27 years. "The city is still dead. There are no tourists. We hate to reopen and have to close again. We're praying it will take off a little more in the spring."

The Civil War museum will reopen Jan. 7 but instead of six days a week there will be three, Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Jan. 8 the venerable institution will mark its 115th birthday.

The museum is located at 929 Camp St. in New Orleans's central business district, which was largely spared by the storm. Confederate Hall sustained some roof and ceiling damage, Ricci said, but the collection was unscathed.

Not so fortunate was the five-person staff. Three lost their homes, according to Ricci.

"There will be just two of us for the foreseeable future," she said, herself and Assistant Curator John Bangs. "Both of us are going to try to stick it out as long as we can." Working on a volunteer basis during the months of closure, Ricci, Bangs, and Bangs's wife Mary have become adept at replastering, Ricci noted.

Ricci and Bangs have taken advantage of the down time to prepare some major new offerings to visitors For instance, the building's annex, which has been closed for four years, will reopen with an additional 900 feet of exhibit space (the main hall is 2,500 square feet).

Ricci cited also a new photography exhibit and an enhanced display on Union Gen. Benjamin Butler's occupation of New Orleans. Items from the life of Winnie Davis, Jefferson Davis's daughter who was a fixture of the New Orleans social scene, will be displayed for the first time in several years. Also, the annex's 16-foot ceiling will allow flags that have been stored for four years to go on display.

The nearby D-Day Museum suffered looting in the wake of Katrina, Ricci said, but Memorial Hall was not touched. A thoughtful law-enforcement officer removed the hall's sign for safekeeping, realizing that "a Confederate sign might create problems if there was looting and rioting. It's the first time in 115 years we haven't had a sign."

Board of directors member Sam Hood said the nonprofit's board "will be closely monitoring the recovery of New Orleans, and the tourist traffic. We will expand the days as New Orleans recovers. Hopefully we will be back to our standard Monday-Saturday schedule quickly."

Hood added, "Our present challenge is great. We receive no public support, and rely totally on donations and visitor admission charges for our operating revenue. We have received no visitor revenue since early September, and even after we reopen in January the visitor traffic will be greatly reduced over the coming months, and probably even the coming years."

Hood, a collateral descendant of Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood, predicted that the museum would survive the devastation to New Orleans.

"I am sure that some way, somehow, we are going to figure out a way of getting through," he said. "But we're going to really have to struggle. We're thinking it's probably going to be three years before the tourist traffic gets to be the way it was."

The board set up a relief fund to help pay for necessities like insurance, utilities and taxes. Those interested in donating may send checks to Memorial Hall Relief Fund, Suite 180 Box 278, 6658 Youree Drive, Shreveport, LA 71105.

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