"Ford Theatre--Lincoln Museum, Washington, D.C.," 1935 Postcard

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford's Theatre in April 1865. In the fall, the U.S. government leased--and later purchased--the building after an attempt to reopen the theater failed. Over the next sixty-five years the building housed offices and became a warehouse. In 1931, a museum displaying Lincoln memorabilia was created. The theatre returned to its 1865 appearance in the 1960s after Congress appropriated funds for the building's restoration.