Visitors to Hannibal’s historic district have a new “must-find” destination to add to their itinerary - the Hannibal Convention and Visitors Bureau’s new satellite office.
This new location is in the Breadeaux Pizza building, 200 N. Main St. The HCVB’s main office at 505 N. Third St. will still remain open to assist guests as well.
While the downtown office will not be spacious, it potentially will serve a big need.
“It will be a small, walk-through office with a couple of TVs showing different attractions in Hannibal and different things to do,” said Beau Hicks, executive director of the HCVB. “There will be several racks with information on everything there is to do in Hannibal.”
The new office has been opened in part for people who may not be physically able to cross the lanes of traffic to reach the 505 N. Third St. or who might be slowed in their dash across the street because they have small children in tow.
“Folks have said without the bridge here that this office has become harder to get into without the stoplight out here,” said Hicks. “Really we need to find a way to connect with people on Main Street.”
Initially, the office hours of the satellite site will vary. On Sundays, the office is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Thursdays, the door will be open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m, Friday and Saturdays, it will still open at 10 a.m. but remain open until 6 p.m.
Those hours could be modified further.
“If we need to adjust that on Friday and Saturday nights until 6:30 or 7 (p.m.), we’ll do that,” Hicks said.
Once tourist season reaches full throttle, the days the satellite office is manned will be expanded to seven days a week.
How late in the year will the satellite office be manned? It’s quite likely that arrivals to Hannibal after Labor Day will still find the HCVB’s downtown information station open.
“I’ve had people say, ‘You know this would be the perfect thing over the Christmas holiday to have Santa Claus in here and this could be our central location for holiday events,’” said Hicks. “Maybe it will just be a weekend thing during the holidays that we have it open. We’re already getting people who have other ideas for it, so we’re doing it month to month right now. We’ll just see how it works out and see what the numbers look like out of there.”
Persons who have visited Hannibal previously may remember a time when there was visitor information available downtown.
“It was very successful. When this office (North Third Street) was opened, they stopped doing that,” said Hicks. “I think as downtown is growing and continuing to re-invent itself, there’s a place for us on historic Main Street.”
