Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site is the original place President Roosevelt entered political office, and marks his legacy of regulating business and protecting nature.

On September 14, 1901, an anxious Theodore Roosevelt stood in the library of a friend's home in Buffalo, NY. Hours earlier, President William McKinley had died of an assassin's bullet. Roosevelt had been in the vice-presidency for barely six months and had privately feared that his political career was ended with his election to a largely powerless office. At 3:32pm, Roosevelt took an oath and rose to the highest office in the land.

Roosevelt's administration would expand the role of the United States in world affairs, change the relationship between the American government and its citizens, and alter the shape of the presidency itself. The park preserves the former Ansley Wilcox home, the scene of this fateful turning point in American history.