New president at Old Salem navigates the changing COVID landscape

Old Salem Museum and Gardens has new leadership. After serving as interim president and CEO following the departure of Frank Vagnone, Terry Taylor was selected by the trustees to take the reins permanently. His tenure begins at a challenging time for historic properties.

Taylor is an East Bend, North Carolina, native who’s been associated with Old Salem in various capacities since the 1990s as a Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) volunteer, Visitor Center director, and chief financial officer. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Moravian, but his new role has him focused less on history and more on the historic district’s bottom line. Prior to former president Frank Vagnone’s arrival in 2017, Old Salem had already been running significant deficits while employing some 240 staff members.

Taylor says while they do receive some funding from the city and county, the largest source of revenue comes from admission dollars, retail sales, grants, and drawing on foundation money donated back in the 1940s and 50s.

“And we were actually pulling off of the endowment funds at about the rate of 25% which, if anybody has any financial background, they know that that’s not sustainable because the industry standard is around five,” says Taylor.

Prior to the stock market drops of the past several months, that endowment stood at roughly $40 million. But Taylor says the bulk of those funds is off the table.

“Because someone may give us a gift in the past and say, ‘Well I only want you to use that to buy a piece of furniture that goes into MESDA, or I only want you to use it to paint a building, or I only wanted you to use it for gardening,” he says. “So, a lot of the money that we have in our endowment funds is extremely restricted.”

And then came the pandemic.

“We closed in March of a couple of years ago now with COVID, and we at that time had about 139 employees,” he says. “And when we were able to reopen post-COVID we were at about 75. I always use 2019 as our base year. That was the last year that we were fully open. And right now, we’re running about 55% of our attendance in 2019 and that’s across the board. In a good year we could get 25 to 30,000 school kids here, and obviously, with those kids not coming back, I mean that’s been a huge revenue hit.”

Meanwhile, renovation costs to keep these centuries-old buildings up and open to the public have soared. A roof replacement with hand-cut shingles costs about $40,000, and even a new coat of paint can run up to $30,000. Taylor says, as the tourist side of the historic district, Old Salem Museum and Gardens is just one part of a complex ecosystem that includes Salem College — one of the nation’s oldest women’s colleges — Home Moravian Church, and some 100 local residents who call the district home.

And for the thousands of visitors who come here each year looking for authenticity, Taylor feels a strong sense of responsibility.

“We’re caretakers for this place in a moment in time,” he says. “I’m here for this time period to help guide this ship and make sure that everything is happening the way it’s supposed to be.”

And there have been some positive signs. Nearby property sales have raised much-needed revenue. There have been recent city and county grants targeting infrastructure. Staff numbers are now nearing 100, enabling them to open additional buildings to tourism. And today, Taylor says, they’re drawing just five percent from their endowment. 

Old Salem Museum and Gardens' Christmas decorations are up, and holiday programming continues through December 31.