Obama Presidential Center Draws 175K Visitors in First 100 Days of Opening

Eunice Alpasan | September 28, 2026, 11:12 am

(Courtesy of The Obama Foundation)

The Obama Presidential Center celebrated its first 100 days over the weekend — and released some new data to mark the occasion.

The Obama Presidential Center Museum in Jackson Park drew more than 175,000 visitors, including visitors from 50 states and 39 countries, according to the Obama Foundation on Saturday.

More than 61,000 visitors were Illinois residents.

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“The first 100 days of the Obama Presidential Center have surpassed our wildest imaginings; it’s like someone has sprinkled the campus with pixie dust that brings people joy, hope and a feeling of community,” Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett said in a statement. “Thousands of people from across the street and around the world have traveled here to see what makes this campus so special and have left inspired to bring change home.”

The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public June 19.

The museum requires a ticket, but the rest of the center’s campus is free and open to the public. The campus includes a playground, a Chicago Public Library branch, gardens, walking trails and art installations.

The Chicago Public Library branch located at the center has seen more than 206,000 visitors, in addition to more than 3,300 new library accounts created, according to the foundation.

Nearly 1,000 young people have participated in after school programming at the center, according to the foundation. The center has also hosted 17 school group field trips, with nearly 1,000 students.

The newly-expanded #10 CTA bus route, with service from downtown to the Obama Presidential Center, had an average of about 6,300 weekly bus rides, according to the foundation. It also saw about 1,700 one-way Divvy trips starting at the center and about 1,600 one-way Divvy trips ending at the center.

The last presidential museum to open, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas, drew more than 170,000 visitors in its first 100 days when it opened in 2013, according to local outlets.