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Ford's Theatre at 511 10th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. is an active theater in Washington DC, used for various performances. The theater became well known when it became the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After being shot, he was carried across the street to the Petersen House where he died the next morning. The theater and house are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.
The site was originally home to a church building, constructed in 1833 as the First Baptist Church of Washington. In 1861, after the congregation vacated the building, John T. Ford took it over and renovated it as a theater. He first called it "Ford's Athenaeum." It was gutted by fire in 1862, and was rebuilt, opening the following year as "Ford's New Theatre."
Just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln sat in the "State Box" watching Our American Cousin. A well-known actor, John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the box and shot Lincoln in the head. He then jumped onto the stage, breaking his leg, and cried out "Sic semper tyrannis" and "The South is avenged!" just before escaping through the alley.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln. From left to right: Henry Rathbone, Clara Harris, Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln, and Booth.
The theater was eventually taken over by the U.S. military and served as the home of the records of the War Department records on first floor, the National Library of Medicine on second floor, and the Army Medical Museum, during the period 1866-1887. In 1887 the medical uses were eliminated and it became a War Department clerk's office. The building collapsed in 1893 and killed 22 of those clerks, injuring another 68. This led some to believe that the former church turned theater and storeroom was cursed, and its many tragedies confirmed this. The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1931. It languished for another 30 years until Congress approved funds for its restoration, which was completed in December 1967. Since 1970 Ford's Theatre has been both an active theater and a historic site remembering the assassination of the 16th U.S. President. The museum beneath the theater contains portions of the Olroyd Collection of Lincolniana.
Ford's Theatre today
Petersen House
The bed Abraham Lincoln died upon at Petersen House.
The room Abraham Lincoln died in at Petersen House.
Abraham Lincoln's booth at Ford's theatre.
Ford's Theatre located on 10th Street NW — a historic landmark in a neighborhood that is undergoing gentrification with new condos and office buildings.
Attendants, including Dr. Charles Leale, carried the President onto 10th street. The doctor decided to take him to Petersen's boarding house across the street. A captain cleared the way to the brick federal stylerowhouse. A boarder, Henry Safford, noticed what was going on and stood on the front steps crying, "Bring him in here, bring him in here!" Then he was taken into the bedroom in the rear of the parlors and placed on a bed that was not long enough for him. Mrs. Lincoln was escorted across the street by Clara Harris, who had been in the box during the shooting, and whose fiancée, Henry Rathbone, had been stabbed by Booth during the assassination. Rathbone, bleeding severely from the knife wound in his arm, collapsed due to loss of blood after arriving at the Petersen House.
During the night and early morning, military guards patrolled outside to prevent onlookers from coming inside the house. A parade of government officials and physicians was allowed to come inside and pay respects to the unconscious President. Physicians continually removed blood clots which formed over the wound where the bullet had entered Lincoln's head to relieve pressure on the brain. However, the external and internal hemorrhaging continued throughout the night. Lincoln died in the house on April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., at age 56.
Administrative history
Theater authorized for federal purchase on April 7, 1866
Designated Ford's Theatre (Lincoln Museum) on April 14, 1965
Petersen House authorized as the House Where Lincoln Died on June 11, 1896
Both structures were transferred from the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933.
