Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-10-27
Old Ford's 1heater, Where
Lincoln Was Shot, Is To Go
1VHE old Ford's Theater building. 10th
hot y L.. 4 q

VIE old Fords Theater building. 10th
street between + and L, is soon to
be torn down and replaced with a
modern business structure, if the report
of President Taft's economy and efficienc y
commission is needed. The commission
has inspected the old building in every
part, has gone over it floor by floor and
almost plank by plank. and has reported
to the President that the structure is
both insanitary and unsafe - insanitary
because it Is old and worn out. lacking
any modern sanitary equipment; unsafe
because the passage of the years has al
lowed decay TO creep into the ancient tim
bers, to weaken the brick and stone Of
foundations and walls. and to bring the
whole big gray pile to the verge of prac-
teal ruin.
So the old landmark has been con-
demned, the comm .ssion's report declar-
ing that 1t is no longer fit for even gov
eminent clerks, downtrodden as they are,
to work in, and unsafe as a place in
which to house public documents and
records. And the next step, in all proba-
bility. will be to tear the old structure
down. AS the building and the land on
which it stands are owned by the govern
ment, however. the question of replac ng
IT with d modern structure is likely to re-
4 i
Ford's Theater. well within the memory
of Neutrality-suspicious. not yet ready for
membership in a home for the aged. was
Washington's premier theater. 1t was in
Ford's that the dramatic stars of half a
century ago cleaned through their little
hour. passing into obscurity OF taking
fhai.- ,N1a ~,
whose making good was for the years
and not for the moment
And it was in the old playhouse that
the nations greatest tragedy was
wrought. All the world knows how. on
the night of April II, 1865, Wilkes Booth
brother of Edwin Booth, the tragedian.
and himself an actor of no mean ability.
entered the Presidents box i'm the thea
ter and shot Abraham Lincoln; knows
how, in leapinS from the box to the
stage. spur on Booths heel caught in
the flag draping the box, and the ASA ssiu
was thrown to the floor, breaking his leg
knows how, in spite of this Booth leaned
to his feet, iourishing tie smoking % stoI
that moment before had sped the mis-
size that ended the life of one of Amer
semper tyrannis. the motto OF the state
OF Virg!nia--hobbled into the wings
thence to the alley, where he mounted ;.
horse and dashed away into the dark
ness.
1t was during a performance of Our
American Cousin" with Laura Keane in
the cast, that the assassination occurred
Every schoo boy has read the story OF
how Booth. headed off in every effort to
escape across the Potomac, was finally
cornered in an abandoned barn, where.
after fight lasting several hours, he
was shot To death by Austin Corbett
while the old barn was burning above his
head. But not SO many persons know
that the man who. it is stated, held
Booths horse in the dark alleyway back
of the theater that fatal night still lives
i'm Washington, and may be seen Almost
auy day-a poor. pathetic figure stunted
and weazened. clad in rag sed, uncouth
garments eking ont a pitiful existence
81 ling papers, matches, shoestrirgs and
the various knickknacks that make I'D
the street pcdd ers stock.
And there arc those who never believed
the story of Booths slaying--who do not
believe 1t TO this day. These persons say
that Corbett did not Kill Booth, and that
the cindered corpse found in the old barn
was that of another, some one who
probably, had no knowledge of the crime