Ford's Theatre

Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth assassinated 16th President Abraham Lincoln in this building just five days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865, signaling the end of the Civil War. Still an active theater, this site includes the compact performance space where the president and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln watched the production of Our American Cousin from a box above the proscenium arch. Beneath the theater, a basement museum now houses artifacts from the event, including the president’s greatcoat, the assassin’s diary and the actual .44-caliber Derringer from the fatal attack. Across the street, visitors can also explore the home of the German tailor William A. Petersen where Lincoln was carried after the shooting and was tended to until his death hours later.