Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historical Site

Visited: July 2018

Duration: 1-2 hours

Accommodations: Niagara Falls, Canada (this was a stop off on the way)

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site was a quick stop off on our way to Niagara falls.  We got off to a late start and didn’t want to deal with the crowds at Niagara so we took our time to get there and made a pit stop off here. We arrived about 10 minutes before opening, so we walked around and got some photos of the outside, it was a gorgeous house.

The house belonged to Ansley Wilcox and is now one of the oldest homes in Buffalo, New York.  President Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President of the United States in the Library of the Wilcox House after President William McKinley was shot twice and died eight days later of an infection from one of the bullets that was not able to be found.

We wandered in when it opened and stood in line for tour tickets (you can buy these in advance, so if you know when you will be there do this), we were 1 over the limit but the AWESOME ranger giving the tour let us go with the group. Thank you Thank you!  The tour was of the inside of the Ansley house and is the only way you get to see it, otherwise without tour tickets you only see the museum which is really small and not really worth the stop.

The tour and our tour guide was AMAZING!!!  There were several room visits but our absolute favorite was The Issues Theater, it is crazy to think that we are dealing with some of the same issues today.

Our second favorite room was the recreation of Roosevelt’s office at the White House. You can sit at the presidential desk where there is a touch screen computer that you can interact with and see how similar you are to TR and how he voted on certain topics. However, the hit was when you could take your picture at the desk and it emails you a picture of you as the president on the front page of the paper with a news story. See below for ours.  How fun is that!!

When the tour ended you had all the time you needed to wander the second floor. We took our time, played checkers and finished up our Junior Rangers. When done we headed down the stairs to be sworn in (just like TR) as Junior Rangers.  We LOVED this ranger (tour guide) she was one of the best we have ever encountered and she made this stop better than what it is by being so generous and informative. You could really tell she loves this job and is very good at it.

Junior Rangers earned, passports stamped and we are off to Niagara Falls, we have heard it is not to be “mist”.

Here they are the newly sworn in Junior Rangers of Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site!! Aren’t they handsome??

Have you been to this Historic Site? Did you enjoy it as much as us? We would love to know your favorite room.