In July of 2013, we traveled to Washington, D.C. and took a tour of Ford's Theatre. Ford's Theatre is the location where John Wilkes Booth stepped into the Presidential box on April 14, 1865 and shot Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head as he was watching the play, Our American Cousin.
Once we arrived and obtained our tickets, we went into the basement museum to see some of the artifacts that they had there related to the assassination. The tours are timed and you go into the theater with a group. If you are interested in tour times and ticket pricing, please check out the Ford's Theatre website. Ford's Theatre is located at 511 10th St NW, Washington, DC 20004.
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 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.
If you would like to learn more history about the building, please review our following video.
If it is the paranormal activity that you may be interested in, we have produced a "Ghost Stories and Folklore" video about the building as well, you can check that out below.
We enjoyed the tour of the theater and would recommend it for anyone who is interested in the history of the building or the assassination of Lincoln. If you have been to this location in the past yourself, please let us know down in the comments section and share your experience with us, we would love to hear them.
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