Ford’s Theatre
 |
|
| Address | 511 10th St, NW Washington, D.C. United States |
|---|---|
| Owner | National Park Service |
| Operator | Ford's Theatre Society |
| Type | Regional theater |
| Capacity | 665 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | August 1863 |
| Reopened | 1968, 2009 |
| Website | |
|
Ford's Theatre National Historic Site
|
|
 
|
|
| Coordinates | 38°53′48″N 77°1′33″W / 38.89667°N 77.02583°WCoordinates: 38°53′48″N 77°1′33″W / 38.89667°N 77.02583°W |
| Area | 0.29 acres (0.12 ha) (theater alone) less than one acre (entire NHS) |
| Built | 1863 |
| Architectural style | Late Victorian |
| Visitation | 856,079 (2005) |
| NRHP reference # | 66000034 |
| Added to NRHP | October 15, 2013 |
Ford's Theatre is a theatre located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. It was the site of the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. After being shot, Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning.
The theater was later used as a warehouse and office building, and in 1893 part of it collapsed, causing 22 deaths. It was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968. During the 2000s, it was renovated again, opening on February 12, 2009, in commemoration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. A related Center for Education and Leadership museum experience opened February 12, 2012 next to Petersen House.
The Petersen House and the theater are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service; programming within the theater and the Center for Education is overseen separately by the Ford's Theatre Society.
The site was originally a house of worship, constructed in 1833 as the second meeting house of the First Baptist Church of Washington, with Obadiah Bruen Brown as the pastor. In 1861, after the congregation moved to a newly built structure, John T. Ford bought the former church and renovated it into a theater. He first called it Ford's Athenaeum. It was destroyed by fire in 1862, and was rebuilt.
On April 14, 1865—just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House—Lincoln and his wife attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. The famous actor John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, made his way into the presidential box and shot Lincoln. Booth then jumped down to the stage, and escaped through a rear door.
...
Wikipedia