in the course of my career and all the interaction i have had with various historians and other scholars who i see come and go, as well as the controversy it comradeship i have daily with fellow rangers. i want to cover the history of ford s theater, sort of a general history, and work my way into the assassination. a little bit about the historical background of the theater. the theater was created in 1860, 1861, from what was originally a baptist church built on the current location on 511 10th street in 1833. the ford brothers were originally from maryland baltimore, where they ran three or four other theaters as well as an opera house. the theater, when it opened at the outset of president lincoln s term in office, it had a short-lived life. following the assassination of president lincoln, the ford brothers were unable to reopen the theater in the aftermath of the tragedy. there was public outrage of it at any thought of trying to continue it a theater given what has
can say this is the definitive site in the federal city and the one site i have really enjoyed in the course of my career and all the interaction i have had with various historians and other scholars who i see come and go, as well as the comradeship i have daily with fellow rangers. i want to cover the history of ford s theatre, sort of a general history, and work my way into the assassination. a little bit about the historical background of the theatre. the theatre was created in 1860, 1861, from what was originally a baptist church built on the current location on 511 10th street in 1833. the ford brothers were originally from maryland baltimore, where they ran three or four other theatres as well as an opera house. the theatre, when it opened at the outset of president lincoln s term in office, it had a short-lived life. following the assassination of president lincoln, the ford brothers were unable to reopen the theatre in the aftermath of the tragedy. there was public ou
surrender of robert e. lee on april 9th. everyone was inside of the theater, the play was under way. lincoln s carriage pulled and up stopped in front of that big gas lamp and lincoln went inside. and then around 10:15 or 10:20 p.m. the doors of ford s theater burst open. first dozens then hundreds then over a thousand people came rushing out those doors screaming. at first some people thought the theater was on fire. then they heard the shouts, lincoln s been shot, the president s been killed, burn the theater, filed the assassin. the first person who noticed what was happening was a guy named george francis who lived on the first floor of the two front rooms. he came outside and walked into the street and he could only get halfway across. he walked right up to the president s body as it was being carried across the street. another boarder on the second floor, henry safford, went outside and he saw the commotion too. he heard the shouts that lincoln had been shot. safford
aside from the lincoln death house, this is a great museum of immigrant culture in washington and boarding house life in washington, d.c. i have been coming here years, making pilgrimages here. i started coming here in 1986 when i joined the reagan administration and i have been coming here for years. i am very excited that this year for the 150th anniversary there will be a big commemoration for abraham lincoln. in past years, i am usually here alone. no one comes here on the night of assassination, no one comes to honor lincoln. i might find one or two here on the steps of peterson house and contemplate what happened. couple years ago, park service almost arrested me sitting on the steps because the guard across the street accused me of being a homeless loiterer. i tried to tell them i wrote a book the anniversary of the assassination, i serve on the ford society council of advisers. two squad cars rolled up and the national park service police questioned me. how do we know
couples to marry. and a conversation on first ladies with the most impact on the executive mansion. sunday, the life and death of james garfield who served almost two decades as a congressman from ohio and was assassinated 200 days into his term as president. get the complete schedule at cspan.org. each week american history tv visits museums and historic places. this is peterson house in washington, d.c. where president abraham lincoln passed away at 7:2 7:22 a.m. a tour of the boarding house across the street from ford s theater where president lincoln was shot 150 years ago. this had a great history even before lincoln was assassinated here. this house built in the early 1850s by a german i am grant to america, william peterson. he used it as boarding house, 10 to 12 lived here at a time. this is a relic of 19th civil war boarding house culture. once upon a time, everybody lived in boarding houses, congressmen, senators, vice presidents of the united states lived in gr