On September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Buffalo after President William McKinley died from injuries suffered in an assassination attempt. Roosevelt reached the city at 1.30pm and was taken to the home of Ansley Wilcox, a friend who would soon provide the setting for an unexpected presidential inauguration.
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According to Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site, Roosevelt first went to the home of John Milburn, where McKinley had been staying, to pay his respects to Mrs McKinley. He then returned to the Wilcox home. There, the library was chosen as the place for him to take the oath of office as the 26th president of the United States.
The ceremony took place at about 3.30pm, only hours after McKinley's death. A small group was present, including a few newspaper reporters who were allowed to take notes. Photographers were kept out of the room until after the ceremony. Roosevelt also wore formal clothes borrowed from some of the guests who were there.
Federal District Judge John R. Hazel administered the oath. Immediately after becoming president, Roosevelt held a short Cabinet meeting in the same library. He then went to the morning room to issue his first presidential proclamation.
The room where that ceremony took place is now part of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site in Buffalo. On the 125th anniversary of Roosevelt's unexpected inauguration, the site is brought the event back to the same library with a live reenactment.
Reenactment on September 14
The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site hosted the reenactment on September 14, 2026. The event featured Joe Wiegand, a performer known for portraying Roosevelt.
The organisers say the reenactment took place in the very room where Roosevelt took the presidential oath in 1901. Wiegand followed part of the same journey that Roosevelt made more than a century ago. He arrived in Buffalo by train on the afternoon of September 14.
According to the event organisers, “TR” was expected to arrive downtown at about 3:45pm, depending on the arrival time of the Amtrak train. He then traveled to the historic Ansley Wilcox House and prepared to take the oath.
The reenactment began at 4:30pm. It recreated the moment when Roosevelt formally became president after McKinley's death.
The event was presented as an opportunity for visitors to experience the historic ceremony in the place where it happened. The organisers described it as a chance to imagine being “IN the room where it happened”.
