The $110 million center, which officially opened Aug. 23, attracted 25,000 paying customers and 5,000 visitors who took a free tour on opening night, said spokesman Ernest Britton.

"We know people have come from all over the country, from New Jersey to Kansas, and from as far away as Thailand and Tanzania," he said.

The museum's goal its first year is 260,000 paying visitors, he said, or an average of 21,666 people a month. He said he expects the museum's busiest months will be January and February, when African-American history is emphasized nationwide.

Admission is $12, $10 for senior citizens and $8 for children 11 and under.

The center has outstripped its annual goal for membership sales. Instead of selling 5,000 a year, it has sold 8,400 memberships, which run $30 for seniors, $40 for individuals, and up to $65 for a family of four.

Attendance numbers are better than openings for other area museums.

The Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center attracted 21,408 paying visitors the first month after it opened in May 2003.

Over the following year it averaged 14,823 visitors a month.

The much smaller Taft Museum of Art drew 9,925 people the first month after it reopened in May.

The Freedom Center's attendance is still dwarfed by that of the Cincinnati Museum Center, which draws 1 million people a year, or 83,333 a month, to its four venues - the Omnimax theater, the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science and the Cinergy Children's Museum.

When it opened in 1990, the Cincinnati History Museum attracted 15,000 people the first month, said museum center spokesman Rodger Pille. Now 20,000 people visit a month.

Pille also noted the recent opening of the Cincinnati Reds Museum downtown. "With each new museum, we all stand to gain," he said.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com