Ford's Theater; May 23, 2004

What I like about living in the Washington area is that I can just jump on the train downtown without any particular plan at all and just go see whatever strikes my fancy at the moment. Today I took a meandering route to Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated. You'd think the government would have made a move to preserve Ford's Theater after Lincoln lost his life there, but you'd be wrong.

The military took it over after a while and used it as a warehouse to store records until the building collapsed under the strain in 1893, killing six clerks and injuring another 68. They repaired it and continued using it as a warehouse for another four decades when the government gave it to the Park Service to restore as a revered historical site. Just kidding. The Park Service got it in 1931 and let it rot for another three decades. The government finally restored it as a historical site in 1967, more than a century after Lincoln's death. Better late than never, I suppose.

Ford's Theater is in a much better neighborhood now than it was during the Civil War. Theater was considered somewhat scandalous back then, bad enough that it could sully the reputation of a President known to frequent it. Preachers of the time referred to theater as "Satan's playhouse." Ford's Theater was on the edge of Hooker's Quarter, a part of town where General Hooker had billeted his troops and famous for its vices. It was a den of scam artists, thieves, and hookers, named in honor of the general who favored their business.