In 1833 the First Baptist Church of Washing was built 10th St., NW., between E and F Streets in Washington D.C. In 1861 the congregation moved to a new structure and sold the building to John T. Ford who renovated it into a theater called Ford's Athenaeum. A fire in 1862 destroyed the building, but Ford rebuilt it into a 2,400 seat theater that was called a "magnificent new thespian temple". The new building opened in August of 1863.
On April 14th 1865, during a showing of Our American Cousin, the actor John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Lincoln in the theater. Lincoln was taken to William Petersen's boarding house where he died the next morning.
Congress purchased the theater from Ford for $100,000 and issued an order preventing it from ever being a place of public amusement again. The theater was gutted and re-purposed for use by the U.S. Military, Library of the Surgeon General, and as an Army Medial Museum. In 1887 the building exclusively became a clerk's office for the war department. In 1893 the front of the building collapsed killing 22 and injuring 68, leading many to believe the building was cursed. The building was repaired and used as a government warehouse until 1928 when it was handed over to the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks. In 1932 it was transferred to the National Park Service and opened as a Lincoln Museum. At this time it was declared a national historic site.
The theater was in poor condition until restoration was brought about by a two decade long lobbying effort by Democratic National Committeeman Melvin D. Hildreth, Jr. and Republican North Dakota Senator Milton D. Young. Hildreth started in 1945. In 1955 Congress passed a bill to prepare a study to restore the building to return it to a Lincoln era appearance. In 1964 Congress approved funds for the restoration which was completed in 1968. On February 5th 1969 the first play since Lincoln's assassination was held in the newly renovated Ford's Theater. To celebrate Lincoln's 200th birthday, the theater was renovated and upgraded in 2009.
-Professor Walter
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