Regarding the history of Ford’s Theatre, the site was originally a house of worship that was constructed in 1833 as the First Baptist Church of Washington. In 1861, after the congregation moved to a newly built one, John T. Ford bought the former church, renovated it and turned it into a theatre. It was named as Ford’s Athenaeum. In 1862, it was gutted by fire, and then rebuilt and opened in the next year as Ford’s New Theatre.
Just five days after General Lee’s surrender a Appomattox Court House, Lincoln was watching Our American Cousin in the “State Box”. John Wilkes Booth, a popular actor, became so desperate to aid the dying confederacy that he stepped into the box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. After this heinous deed, he jumped onto the stage and cried out “Sic semper tyrannis” and escaped through the alley. After being shot, Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House. But he never recovered consciousness and died the next morning. The theatre and house are preserved together as the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site – a tourist attraction in District of Columbia that brings back to mind Lincoln’s memories.
Today, the Ford’s Theatre NHS and National Park Service together preserve the site of one of the most tragic event in the history of the world. Park rangers give details of the assassination along with the display of objects associated with the assassination. These objects are restored in the museum at the theatre’s basement. The Peterson House has been preserved and historically furnished to display the scene of that tragic night. The museum also contains portions of the Olroyd Collection of Lincolniana, the Derringer pistol used to shoot Lincoln, etc.
To know more about the tourist attractions in the District of Columbia, keep surfing the pages in www.districtofcolumbiaxl.com
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