President Theodore Roosevelt dedicated Memorial Hall on June 3, 1903, in the first visit to Rockford by a sitting President of the United States. Although Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant had come to the city during the 19th century, neither was then in elected office. Roosevelt's 1903 visit prompted a large patriotic celebration, with enthusiastic crowds lining his route through the city. He returned to Rockford in 1912 while running for president on the Bull Moose ticket and again in 1917 to address soldiers at Camp Grant.