Entrance to the Wilcox House in Buffalo, New York, where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated president of the United States in 1901

Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 26th President of the United States on September 14, 1901, following the death of President William McKinley in a Buffalo, New York, house belonging to Ansley Wilcox, a friend of Roosevelt’s since the early 1880s. McKinley was visiting Buffalo to attend the Pan-American Exposition when he was shot in the chest and stomach by avowed anarchist Leon Czolgosz on September 6th. He did not die right away. Roosevelt, the vice president at the time, traveled from Vermont to Buffalo to see McKinley, and he stayed at the Wilcox House.

By September 10th, doctors were sure McKinley was out of danger, so Roosevelt left Buffalo to join his family for a vacation in the Adirondack Mountains in up-state New York. Unfortunately, McKinley’s health took a turn for the worst, and he died on September 14th around 2 AM. Roosevelt returned to Buffalo, arriving around 1:30 PM that afternoon, too late to see McKinley before he died. He again stayed with the Wilcoxes, and around 3:15 PM he was sworn in as president. The ceremony took place in the library of house.

The property on which the Wilcox House sits was a military garrison in the 1830s; the house was one of the officers’ quarters. When the garrison closed in 1845, everything was torn down except for the Wilcox House. It was purchased by Joseph Mastern, and after passing through the hands of two other people, in 1883 Dexter Rumsey became the owner. When his daughter, Mary Grace, married Ansley Wilcox that November, Rumsey allowed the couple to live in the house as long as they wanted.

Viewing the house from Delaware Avenue, it looks imposing but does not take up a lot of frontage. What can’t be seen from the street is just how far the structure extends to the rear, for it is a very long, rectangular house. The original officers’ quarters was square in shape. An addition to the rear was added prior to Rumsey’s purchase, though records are unclear as to when this work was done. In 1896, Wilcox had the addition rebuilt to make it larger.

South side of the Wilcox House in Buffalo, New York, where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 26th president of the United States in 1901

A carriage house was constructed in the 1880s on the left side of the Wilcox House (when viewing it from Delaware Avenue). This stood until being torn down in the late 1930s. The current Visitor Center was built on its footprint. It is similar in appearance, but it is not a replica because there are no surviving blueprints or other documents pertaining to the carriage house’s construction.

Visitor Center at Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site (right) and the back of the Ashley Wilcox House

Ansley died in 1930 and his wife in 1933. The house reverted back to the Rumsey estate, and in the late 1930s it was leased to Oliver and Kathryn Lawrence for use as a restaurant, Kathryn Lawrence’s Dining Room. The restaurant was a very popular place until closing in the early 1960s after Kathryn’s death in 1959. The Lawrence’s made drastic changes to the interior, including knocking out walls to create a larger dining area, so most everything today is a best-guess reconstruction of the original interior layout. The only room that was restored to its 1901 appearance was the library. While no photographs were taken during Roosevelt’s inauguration, the press was allowed to photograph the room afterwards, and these photos were used to recreate the library as closely as possible.

After the restaurant closed, the land was leased to a developer who planned to tear down the Wilcox House and build an office complex. Because of its historical value, the Buffalo community rallied to save it. The United States Congress proposed a bill to designate it a National Historic Site, and in the meantime, the National Bank and Trust Company bought the property to secure the house’s safety. The bill was passed in November 1966, creating Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. However, the bill only partially funded the new park, and it took a few years to raise public money for a restoration. The Wilcox  House finally opened to the public in 1971. Today the National Park Service provides roughly 40 percent of the cost to operate the park while the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation must provide the rest of the money from public donations. The Foundation operates the historic site through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

For information on touring the Wilcox House and photos of the interior, see the Wilcox House Guided Tour web page here on National Park Planner.

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