BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Just one small plaque on Fordham Street marks where President William McKinley was shot 115 years ago during Buffalo's Pan American Exposition.
That has some worried about the legacy of McKinley’s death and Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration.
"It was a big deal,” said Cynthia Van Ness, director of library and archives for the Buffalo History Museum. “The nation's government actually moved here during 1901.
“After [McKinley] was shot and was ailing, then they thought he'd get better, and then he didn't get better, pretty much the whole cabinet moved here. Buffalo was the seat of government for about a week."
On September 14, 1901, McKinley succumbed to his injuries. That afternoon, Roosevelt was sworn in as the country's 26th president in Buffalo.
"This was very significant because there have only been four times in American history where a president took the oath of office outside the nation's capitol," said Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Executive Director Stanton Hudson.
The room where Roosevelt's inauguration took place is Western New York's only National Park Service site.
"If it hadn't been for the local community, this house came perilously close to being torn down in 1966,” said Hudson. “The community rallied, raised money, was able to save the house and then through legislation, was able to open it."
It has been well over a century since that day, and there is little to mark such a historic moment.
“Very few schoolchildren in America can name the president who was assassinated in Buffalo in 1901,” said Joe Wiegand, a Roosevelt reprisor. "We should remember President McKinley and his service to the American people, the annexation of Hawaii, open door policy in China, Mount Rainier National Park, additional national forests named from the National Forest Act and so much more."
For years, some local lawmakers have been talking about putting together a bigger commemoration of the events of September 14, 1901. Those at the inaugural site are working to make that a reality.