Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Opening on America’s 250th Anniversary
The 95,000-square-foot sanctuary designed by Snøhetta honors the 26th president’s conservation legacy
Theodore Roosevelt is one of America’s most beloved presidents and is now the earliest one to have an official presidential library. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library (TRPL) is due to open in Medora, North Dakota, on July 4, 2026—exactly 250 years since the founding of the United States. Sitting adjacent to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in a starkly beautiful badlands setting, the Snøhetta-designed sanctuary is ready to teach over 200,000 visitors annually about the larger-than-life figure still affectionately known as Teddy.
The use of timber in some of the roof and ceiling design recalls the classic old National Park lodges, but every note of the architecture is distinctly 21st century, and in keeping with the very highest LEED standards. “Every path, every view, and every material decision is designed to deepen the connection between people and place, transforming a visit into an encounter with the earth. In doing so, the library becomes more than a repository of history, it becomes an invitation to engage with the values of stewardship, civic responsibility, and wonder that continue to define Roosevelt’s legacy,” said Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta.
Roosevelt was a human hurricane of self confidence whose many accomplishments included a presidency that historians still frequently rank in the top five, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, protecting 230 million acres of public land, groundbreaking consumer protections, trustbusting, and invaluable support for the Panama Canal; a reading of Edward Morris’s three-volume biography is warranted to properly understand the full scope, but there are plenty of perfectly good one-volume biographies of Roosevelt that get the point across. His record as an early proponent of conservation is especially pertinent today.
The opening day festivities for the library will conclude with a July 4 light show over the Badlands with 1776 drones, accompanied by The 188th Army Band. It is uncertain whether Roosevelt, whose daughter Alice Roosevelt Longworth claimed, “wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the baby at every christening,” would have minded having to share the day with the country’s 250th Anniversary, or would have appreciated drawing the spotlight to himself.