The building was constructed in 1833 as a Baptist church meeting house. John T. Ford converted it into a theater in 1861, a fire struck in 1862, and it opened in August 1863. The article names no architect and calls the style Late Victorian. The capacity is 665.
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot during a performance of Our American Cousin and died the next morning at the Petersen House. The government seized the theater, and Congress later prohibited its use for public amusement. On June 9, 1893, interior floors collapsed, killing 22 clerks.
The National Park Service took it over in 1933. A restoration from 1964 to 1968 reopened it on January 30, 1968, and a renovation reopened it on February 11, 2009. The presidential box is never occupied.
Comments