Ford's Theater is a theater located in Washington D.C.

, which opened in August

1863.
It is famous for being the site of the assassination of United States President Abraham
Lincolnon (April 14, 1865). After being shot, the fatally wounded 56-year-old
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 Theater
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.
History
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.
Assassination of President Lincoln
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 Theater. 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. This was witnessed by
many, including 5-year-old Samuel J. Seymour who lived to 1956, becoming the last
witness to the Lincoln assassination.
Following the assassination, the United States Government appropriated the theater,
with Congress paying Ford $88,000 in compensation, and an order was issued forever
prohibiting its use as a place of public amusement. Between 1866 and 1887, the
theater was taken over by the U.S. military and served as a facility for the War
Department with records kept on the first floor, the Library of the Surgeon General's
Office on the second floor, and the Army Medical Museum on the third. In 1887, the
building exclusively became a clerk's office for the War Department, when the
medical departments moved out.
Disrepair and restoration
On June 9, 1893, the front part of the building collapsed, killing 22 clerks and
injuring another 68. This led some people to believe that the former church turned
theater and storeroom was cursed. The building was repaired and used as a
government warehouse until 1911.
It languished unused until 1918. In 1928, the building was turned over from the War
Department Office to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National
Capital. A Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the theater building on
February 12, 1932—Lincoln's 123rd birthday. In 1933, the building was transferred
to the National Park Service.
The restoration of Ford's Theater was brought about by the two decade-long lobbying
efforts of Democratic National Committeeman Melvin D. Hildreth and Republican
North Dakota Representative Milton Young. Hildreth first suggested to Young the
need for its restoration in 1945. Through extensive lobbying of Congress, a bill was
passed in 1955 to prepare an engineering study for the reconstruction of the building.
In 1964, Congress approved funds for its restoration, which began that year and was
completed in 1968.
On January 21, 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 500 others dedicated the
restored theater. The theater reopened on January 30, 1968, with a gala performance.
The presidential box is never occupied.
The theater was again renovated during the 2000s. It has a current seating capacity of
665. The re-opening ceremony was on February 11, 2009, which commemorated
Lincoln's 200th birthday. The event featured remarks from President Barack Obama
as well as appearances by Katie Couric, Kelsey Grammer, James Earl Jones, Ben
Vereen, Jeffrey Wright, the President's Own Marine Band, Joshua Bell, Patrick Lundy
and the Ministers of Music, Audra McDonald and Jessye Norman.

Ford's Theater National Historic Site

The National Historic Site consisting of two contributing buildings, the theater and
the Petersen House, was designated in 1932.
The Ford's Theater Museum beneath the theater contains portions of the Olroyd
Collection of Lincolniana. Most recently renovated for a July 2009 reopening, the
Museum is run through a partnership with the National Park Service and the private
non-profit 501(c)(3) Ford's Theater Society. The collection includes multiple items
related to the assassination, including the Derringer pistol used to carry out the
shooting, Booth's diary and the original door to Lincoln's theater box. In addition, a
number of Lincoln's family items, his coat (without the blood-stained pieces), some
statues of Lincoln and several large portraits of the President are on display in the
museum. The blood-stained pillow from the President's deathbed is in the Ford's
Theater Museum. In addition to covering the assassination conspiracy, the renovated
museum focuses on Lincoln's arrival in Washington, his presidential cabinet, family
life in the White House and his role as orator and emancipator. The museum also
features exhibits about Civil War milestones and generals and about the building's
history as a theatrical venue. The rocking chair in which Lincoln was sitting is now
on display at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Petersen House
After Lincoln was shot, doctors had soldiers carry him into the street in search of a
house in which he would be more comfortable. A man on the steps of the house of
tailor William Petersen beckoned to them. They took Lincoln into the first-floor
bedroom and laid him on the bed – diagonally because of his unusual height. Many
people came to visit him throughout the night before he died the following morning
at 7:22 a.m.
The Petersen House was purchased by the U.S. government in 1896 as the "House
Where Lincoln Died", being the federal government's first purchase of a historic
home. The National Park Service has operated it as a historic house museum since
1933, the rooms furnished as on the night Lincoln died.