Ford's Theatre is a 19th century structure in Washington D.C. and a national treasure for all Americans.  It will forever be associated with the events of April 1865, when President Abraham Lincoln, seated in Box 7, was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth.  Today, the theatre is a living tribute to Lincoln's love of the performing arts.

The building was founded in 1833 as the First Baptist Church of Washington.  In 1861, the congregation leased it to John Ford, a successful theatrical entrepreneur from Baltimore.  He converted the church into a music hall called "Ford's Athenaeum", but a fire destroyed the building in 1862.  Ford reconstructed it the following year and named it "Ford's New Theatre".  It was regarded as one of the grandest in the nation.

This was the site where Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth, during a performance of "Our American Cousin" in April 1865.  The theatre and the Peterson House (located across the street), where Lincoln died the next morning, are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.

Booth had ridden his horse into the alley behind Ford's Theatre and left the horse in the stable on the left.  He then entered the theatre through the small stage door at the rear of the theatre, continued downstairs below the stage, coming up on the other side.  He then exited the theatre by the side exit door and continued up the side of the building and entered Taltavul's Saloon (small building to the right of theatre), where he had a drink.  After leaving Taltavul's he entered the theatre again by the 2nd door from the saloon, climbed the stairs and made his way to Lincoln's box.   After shooting Lincoln, Booth jumped from the box to the stage and cried out "Sic semper tyrannis" just before exiting the stage door to the alley behind the building.  He retrieved his horse from the stable and escaped.

The Federal Government bought the building from Ford in 1866 and used it as a government warehouse.  Misfortune struck the theatre again in 1893 when all three floors collapsed, killing 22 workers and injuring 68.  It languished unused until 1954 when Congress approved funds for its restoration.  The restored theatre opened its doors to the public in 1968.  Since then it has been an active theatre as well as a national historic and cultural site welcoming visitors from across the nation.  It produces musicals and plays, which embody family values.

The basement of the theatre houses the excellent Lincoln Museum.  It includes the clothes he wore that fateful night, the pistol that ended his life, the blood-stained pillow that he had died upon, the flag that draped his coffin, Booth's diary, and the original door to Lincoln's theatre box.

There are miniature reproductions mounted on the building walls of the original posters advertising "Our American Cousin" at the Theatre, and the Wanted-Reward poster for Booth and his accomplices.