A Prospering Place 

At the time of Theodore Roosevelt's 1901 inauguration, Buffalo was a thriving port city on Lake Erie and the western terminus of the Erie Canal. With more than 350,000 residents, it was the 8th largest city in the country. It had also produced two Presidents (Millard Fillmore and Grover Cleveland) and was recognized as one of the great cities in the United States.

The structure that now houses the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site was originally built circa 1840, as the officers' headquarters for a United States Army installation called the Poinsett or Buffalo Barracks.

In 1883, Dexter Rumsey purchased the house as a wedding gift for his daughter, Mary Grace, upon her marriage to Ansley Wilcox, a young and successful Buffalo lawyer. The Wilcox family made 641 Delaware Avenue their home from 1883-1933. It was during their residence that Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated as President of the United States on September 14, 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley.

The death of Ansley Wilcox in 1930, followed by that of his wife in 1933, left the house empty. The house was later sold to Kathryn and Oliver Lawrence, who turned it into a restaurant. Shortly after Kathryn Lawrence's death in 1959, the restaurant closed and the mansion's very existence was in doubt. Through the efforts of a community-wide campaign, the house was eventually declared a National Historic Site by Congressional law in 1966. It opened to the public as a museum on September 14, 1971.

Click here to see a Virtual Tour of the building throughout its history

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