Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Starting this Wednesday, people can experience a new double decker bus tour and witness all the sites of Buffalo history associated with the tragic assassination of President William McKinley and the quick, "unexpected inauguration" of his Bull Moose successor, Theodore Roosevelt.
The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site has teamed up with the Buffalo Double Decker Bus Tours to present an opportunity for history buffs to board a Leyland Olympian English double decker bus to view the historic locales in Buffalo that include where President William McKinley was shot and the estate where McKinley stayed during his ill-fated convalescence.
"To some extent, the bus tour covers the same story that we do in a tour of our museum, which is the story of President McKinley, his visit to Buffalo, his shooting and eventual death, and Roosevelt's inauguration here at the home, but it tells it from a different perspective," says Mark Lozo, education director of the Theodore Roosevelt Inauguration Site.
"The bus allows us to travel around to different parts of the city to see locations that are connected to that story, and to talk about aspects of that story and perspectives on it that we don't normally have a chance to talk about when touring the museum itself. So it's a an opportunity, even if you've been to the Roosevelt site, to learn new facts and aspects of that story that you might have never heard before."
The bus takes you on a tour of the grounds of the where the Pan American Exposition was and where the Temple of Music once stood, including the Buffalo History Museum, the only major building still standing from the exposition, according to Lozo.
"We'll head downtown also, to visit the area of the train station, where then Vice-President Roosevelt would have arrived in Buffalo, following the shooting of President McKinley. We will then go by the location of where police headquarters would have been at the time, and Old County Hall where President McKinley's body would be laid out after his death, and where, ultimately, the assassin would be tried," added Lozo.
Tickets are going fast for this month's tour, which is June 26th starting at 5:30 p.m. ET, but not to worry. There will be three more tours going on through September. The dates are as follows: July 24, August 28, September 25. Each ticket costs $35 or $30 if you are a member of the TR Inaugural Site. You can click here for more information. Tickets include half-price admission to the museum and a bonus "Guide to the Pan-Am Grounds."
This is just the beginning of more exciting things to come for the TR Inaugural Site, according to the site's new Executive Director Spencer Morgan, who took over for the previous director in April.
"It's bringing the TR site to the next level. If you visited the TR site in the past, you know that we have some wonderful technology, some wonderful, wonderful sensory experiences as you tour and as you commence throughout the house. We're planning on adding more to that. And I'm really excited about some of the advancements, especially the technological ones we'll be making here onsite. Another exciting piece to the TR site is our virtual reality components that we have accessible through our website.