Ford’s Theatre

On Saturday we took the metro into Washington DC to visit and see a performance at the historic Ford’s Theatre.

We had booked for a tour of the theatre at 11am - when we arrived there was a very long queue of visitors also waiting to do the tour.

Across the road from the theatre in the Ford’s Centre for Education and Leadership, a large black and white photograph of Abraham Lincoln looked down on us all.

When the tour began we visited a museum in the basement of the theatre.  The museumtold the story of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, his actions to abolish slavery and the events of the day in1865 when he was shot in the Ford’s Theatre.

He was shot by an actor who crept into the box where he and his wife were watching a performance.  Shot at point blank range, he did not die immediately but was taken across the road to a private boarding house where, despite the attentions of doctors, he died several hours later.

After the museum we were shown into the theatre itself where a National Parks Ranger (the theatre is run by the National Park Service) told us the story.

It is a modest sized theatre and in fact a replica of the 1860’s theatre, created in 1968, the original theatre having fallen into disrepair after the assassination.



The presidents box was marked with flags - as it would always have been.

We then returned to the theatre for a matinee performance of A Christmas Carol, which was excellent.

No photos allowed during the performance of course but I managed to take a few of the stage set and  the auditorium before and after.