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It has a current seating capacity of 665. The theater was again renovated during the 2000s. The theater reopened on January 30, 1968, with a gala performance. On January 21, 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey and 500 others dedicated the restored theater. In 1964, Congress approved funds for its restoration, which began that year and was completed in 1968. Through extensive lobbying of Congress, a bill was passed in 1955 to prepare an engineering study for the reconstruction of the building. Hildreth first suggested to Young the need for its restoration in 1945. Hildreth and Republican North Dakota Representative Milton Young. The restoration of Ford's Theatre was brought about by the two-decade-long lobbying efforts of Democratic National Committeeman Melvin D. In 1933, the building was transferred to the National Park Service. A Lincoln museum opened on the first floor of the theater building on February 12, 1932-Lincoln's 123rd birthday. In 1928, the building was turned over from the War Department Office to the Office of Public Buildings and Parks of the National Capital. The building was repaired and Record and Pension Office clerks were moved back on July 30, 1894. This led some people to believe that the former church turned theater and storeroom was cursed. On June 9, 1893, the front section of the three interior floors collapsed when a supporting pillar was undermined during excavation of the cellar, killing 22 clerks and injuring another 68. See also: United States Congress Joint Committee on the Ford's Theater Disaster
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In 1887, the building exclusively became a clerk's office for the Record and Pension Office of the War Department when the medical departments moved out. military and served as a facility for the War Department with records kept on the first floor, the Library of the Surgeon General's Office on the second floor, and the Army Medical Museum on the third.
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Between 18, the theater was taken over by the U.S. Congress paid Ford $88,000 in compensation, and an order was issued forever prohibiting its use as a place of public amusement. įollowing the assassination, the United States Government appropriated the theater. Seymour who lived to 1956, becoming the last witness to the Lincoln assassination. This was witnessed by many, including 5-year-old Samuel J. Booth then jumped down to the stage, and escaped through a rear door. The famous actor John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, made his way into the presidential box and shot Lincoln. On April 14, 1865-just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House-Lincoln and his wife attended a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. See also: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln The Petersen House and the theater are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service programming within the theater and the Center for Education is overseen separately by the Ford's Theatre Society. A related Center for Education and Leadership museum opened February 12, 2012, next to Petersen House. The building became a museum in 1932, and it was renovated and re-opened as a theater in 1968. In 1893, part of its interior flooring collapsed, causing 22 deaths, and needed repairs were made. The theater was later used as a warehouse and government office building. After being shot in the head, the fatally wounded 56-year-old Lincoln was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning. It is infamous for being the site of the assassination of United States President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.