By Edward Epstein
Washington D.C.
August 29, 2021
The Ford's Theatre complex, one of the most iconic spots to connect with Abraham Lincoln, is partially reopened and welcoming visitors to the spot where the 16th president was assassinated on the evening of April 14, 1865.
The National Park Service is welcoming visitors to the theater and the downstairs museum that focuses on the assassination from Wednesday to Sunday. The Petersen House across the street, where Lincoln died the morning after he was shot, remains closed for now, as does the adjacent multi-story Aftermath Exhibits that was added on for visitors a few years ago.
Those features will reopen in subsequent phases tied to the course of the Covid-19 situation.
The theatre is at 811 10th St. NW, in the heart of downtown Washington.
Current hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. but the Park Service advises potential visitors that the "visitation schedule varies weekly through September." Tickets are available online at the Ford's Theatre website, for a $3 service charge. They can also be obtained at the Ford's box office, for free.
As seen at right, only some of the timed tickets include admission to the museum, which contains many artifacts from the evening of the assassination.
The theater will reopen for live performances on Oct. 1. The first show will be "My Lord, What a Night," a play about the night in 1937 that African-American opera singer Marian Anderson was refused a room in a hotel in Princeton, N.J., after performing in the college town because of segregation. The famed physicist Albert Einstein offered her a place to stay in his home and the play shows how the events of that evening sparking a lasting friendship.
Visitors to Ford's are reminded that Covid-19 safety precautions are in force, including a mask mandate indoors.