Frequently Asked Questions: Ford's Theatre

 

Ford's Theatre owner and manager John T. Ford. Ford had a successful career managing theatres in Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, and other cities, but his name would forever be connected to Lincoln's assassination.

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What were the prices of tickets at the theatre when Lincoln was assassinated?

There were three prices for tickets that evening, as printed on the playbill:
· Orchestra Level (lower, main level, toward the stage) – 1 dollar
· Dress Circle (balcony level) and Parquette (back of the Orchestra) – 75 cents
· Family Circle (upper balcony level) – 25 cents

Except for the state box, where the president and his guests sat, the boxes were not in use that evening. Those tickets were much pricier, with an upper-level box costing $10 and a lower-level box costing $6.

Other than the private boxes, the ticket prices were reasonably affordable. According to Thomas Bogar’s book Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination, the $1 cost for the Orchestra seats would have bought a five-pound sack of sugar, five haircuts, ten shots of liquor, or a third the cost of a night in a respectable hotel in 1865 Washington, D.C.

Why is there a wallpapered partition leaning inside and against the state box wall?

The partition that is leaning on the far-left side of the box was placed there at the direction of theatre owner John T. Ford. The purpose of the partition was to transform the box area into two separate boxes and rent them separately. Theatre employees placed it against the wall to make the area one larger, more spacious box for the benefit of the presidential party. The partition is in place on the opposite side of the stage, separating the two upper boxes.

Is the wallpaper within the state box the original?

No, the wallpaper that you see inside the state box is identical to the original. An original wallpaper sample can be found in the Ford’s Theatre Museum. It is located inside one of the glass cases near the stairwell leading up into the theatre.

Does anyone ever sit in or use the state box during plays or shows?

No, no one ever occupies the state box during plays or other theatre events.

 

Advertisement for the opening of Ford's New Theatre, ca. 1863.

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Are the chairs in the theatre original?

No, the chairs in the theatre are not original. The chairs you see today look similar to the type of chairs used in theatres towards the end of the 19th century. The original 1865 chairs were cane-bottomed, high-backed wooden chairs. You would have seen many more chairs on the orchestra and theatre balcony levels then than you would today. Some of the chairs were secured to the floor back then, but not all. If they wanted to, the Ford brothers could fill the aisles with loose chairs, as there were no laws or fire code restrictions requiring a theater to maintain aisles between rows of seats. In 1968, the restored Ford’s Theatre opened with replicas of the original chairs. Audiences found them very uncomfortable, and the theatre installed the current seats in 1986. No original high-backed wooden chairs from the night of the assassination are known to still exist.

Are the furnishings in the state box the original items?

No, the furnishings in the box are not original. The state box at Ford’s Theatre is decorated with exact replicas that the government commissioned for President Lincoln’s box when the theater was restored in 1968. The Carlton McLendon Furniture Company of Montgomery, Alabama built the replicas.

The original rocking chair that Lincoln sat on is currently on display in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The chair was the personal property of theatre treasurer Henry C. Ford, known as Harry and of no relation to the famous automobile industrialist Henry Ford. Immediately following the murder, the chair was seized along with other items in the box, in case they were needed as evidence for use in the trial. After the trial concluded, the War Department kept the chair. In 1866, the War Department gave the chair to the Smithsonian, where it was put into storage. In 1921, Harry Ford’s widow, Blanche Chapman Ford, petitioned the federal government for custody of the chair, claiming it as personal property.

In 1929, the government returned the rocker to Mrs. Ford. She then had it sold at auction in New York City, where agent of Henry Ford purchased it for $2,400. This was the famous Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Car Company. When Henry Ford bought the chair, he agreed that the artifact would go on public display at his museum in Michigan. This was just a few years before the National Park Service acquired the historic Ford’s Theatre building in 1933.

The National Park Service owns the original love sofa on which Major Henry Rathbone sat during the assassination. It is currently not on display.

In 2005, a Virginia family donated a carved-back wooden, cane-bottomed parlor chair to Ford’s Theatre. The chair had been in the family’s possession for 140 years, and family lore holds that it is the chair that Mary was sitting that night. The age, materials, and style of the chair are all consistent with the chair that Mrs. Lincoln would have used. It is the chair in the box today, though there is not enough documentation to verify its authenticity with certainty.

 

Photograph by Mathew Brady's studio, depicting the interior of Ford's Theatre after the assassination. The box in which President Lincoln sat is to the right, decorated with flags and a portrait of George Washington.

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Why is there a picture of George Washington on the state box?

The state box is decorated to portray how the box looked on the night of the assassination. Shortly after the assassination, photographer Mathew Brady was allowed to enter Ford's Theatre and take images of the stage and box. The National Park Service has tried to decorate the box based on his photographs, which included a portrait of George Washington. The lithograph portrait was the personal possession of the manager of the theater, Harry Ford. Mr. Ford removed the lithograph from his living quarters above the next-door Star Saloon the afternoon of the assassination and placed it on the outside of the box to make it look “presidential.” He did so in preparation for the president’s visit to the theater that evening. Ford's Theatre owns the original lithograph portrait of George Washington that decorated the box that night. It is not currently on display.

Today, we use the presidential seal to mark such an appearance by the Chief Executive. In 1865, the presidential seal was not used in that manner. In Lincoln’s time, presidents used their seal to emboss the wax that sealed an envelope addressed by the president to Congress. This marked the document as official. The presidential seal did not gain its more generalized use as a symbol of the presidency until much later. During the Civil War, George Washington’s very recognizable picture was often used as an allusion to the presidency. This made Harry Ford's decision to put Washington's portrait on the box a totally reasonable one for the time.

What happened to the Ford’s Theatre building after the assassination?

In July 1865, theatre owner John T. Ford was ready to resume performances. However, emotions among the citizens of Washington, D.C. ran high against the reopening. Some Washingtonians threatened to burn the theater to the ground should the Fords try to reopen. In light of this possible violence, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered the theatre closed and posted a military guard to ensure the closure. One possible new use emerged, as Washington’s YMCA announced its intention to purchase the building and to reopen as “The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Temple.” This plan would set the box aside as a kind of shrine to the president and host lectures and programs in the theatre. Within a few weeks, though, a lack of financial support doomed the idea.

The federal government negotiated a deal with Ford to rent the building with an option to buy. In the fall of 1866, a Brooklyn firm removed the entire interior of the building and converted it into a federal office building for $28,000. This renovation did little to alter to the façade, the roof, and the attic, but three floors of office and storage space were created inside. The government purchased the structure for $100,000 in 1867. This new office building briefly was intended to store the captured records of the Confederacy. Instead, the structure housed US Army medical records.

By April 1867, the former Ford’s Theatre was fully reopened as a government office building. On the first floor were offices for the Army Surgeon General’s Record and Pension Division. The second floor was occupied by the National Library of Medicine and on the third floor was the Army Medical Museum (now located in Silver Spring, Maryland). The National Library of Medicine and the Army Medical Museum moved out of the building in 1887. By January1890, the clerks at Ford’s worked in the War Department Records and Pensions Office.

On June 9, 1893, the interior of the historic building collapsed. Twenty-two people died in the tragedy and sixty-eight others were seriously injured. Within a year, the War Department repaired the damage. The former theatre was remodeled into a government warehouse, with more alterations to the interior.

The building remained in this form until 1931, when workers returned to modify the first floor. It was converted into a museum dedicated to displaying artifacts of the life of our sixteenth president. The museum was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. Many of the museum’s artifacts were from the Osborn Oldroyd collection. Oldroyd had lived in the Petersen House for about 30 years and displayed his collection of Lincoln memorabilia there. The US government purchased Oldroyd's artifacts for $50,000 in 1927.

During the 1950s, Senator Milton R. Young of North Dakota introduced a bill to fund the restoration of Ford’s Theatre to its 1865 appearance. In 1964, Congress appropriated the funds and in 1968, the restored Ford’s Theatre reopened as a working theatre, 103 years after the assassination of President Lincoln. Also in 1968, the Ford’s Theatre Society became a partner with the National Park Service.

The site was designated as the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site in 1970. Today, the site is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Ford’s Theatre Society as a part of the National Mall & Memorial Parks.

 

Ford's Theatre, April 1865, taken just days after the assassination. Note the mourning crepe draped from the windows and the soldiers posted as guards out front.

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How much of the theatre is original?

Almost all of the interior structure of the theatre was removed when it was converted to an office building in 1866. More modifications were made following the 1893 collapse, as well as in the 1920s with the creation of the Lincoln Museum. Today, the only original parts of the theatre building include the front façade, structural elements in the roof framing and attic, and some smaller portions of the exterior brick walls on the north and south sides. On the front of the theatre facing 10th Street, several window openings were altered, as shown by the change in brick color. The southernmost set of windows are the only ones that are completely original. Some repair work was also done to repair the bowing front façade in the 1866 renovation.

A few small pieces from the original theatre were preserved and are part of the Ford's Theatre museum today. These items include an original door to access the state box, the piece of wood that John Wilkes Booth used to bar the outer door to the box shut, and wallpaper and curtain swatches from the box.

Is Ford’s a working theatre? Do they still have shows?

Yes, Ford’s Theatre reopened in 1968 as a living memorial to Abraham Lincoln. The site is a National Historic Site as well as an active working theatre with four major plays each year. For more information about the productions, visit the Ford's Theatre Society's website.

How can I get tickets to visit and/or see a play at Ford’s Theatre?

You can call the Ford’s Theatre box office at [phone] or visit the Ford's Theatre Society's website for information on shows and tickets.