My first post: thoughts on Booth leg fracture

[Jim Garrett]

Welcome Heath:

You will find this symposium of the highest calibre. Laurie is very close to the mark with a number of 1500 in attendance on the night of the assassination. The NPS usually give out a number of 1700. This is well over the 1865 capacity, however, this was a great opportunity for the Ford's. Good Friday is usually a slow night for the theater. To have the "men of the hour" both attend would guarantee a sell out. The official capacity was about 1200. However, the Ford brothers were known to bring out additional chairs and place them in the back. The seating in the family circle (top balconey) was high back bench seating. They would pack patrons in to standing room only.

There was no official count as to the number of attendees. My guess in part because Harry Ford, Joseph Sessford and Thomas Raybold were in the process of counting the receipts when they were interupted by the "crime of the century".

On Lafayette Square, I believe 722 Jackson Pl. is the home of Major Henry Rathbone. To the left of it, is the home of Genenral Daniel Sickles. The Decatur house was the residence of Senator Judah P. Benjamin just before the war, so theres another tentative link. No longer standing were the homes of John Hay (after the war, now the location of the Hay-Adams Hotel), The Old Club (home of Secretary Seward) the home of Gideon Welles, and on Pa Ave across from the Treasury was the HQ of General C.C. Auger. The White House Historical Association has a very nice gift shop/book store between the Rathbone home and the Decatur House.

Wok N Roll has decent food at moderate prices (go with the lunch specials). If you stand across the street from the Surratt Boarding house aka Wok N Roll, take in the block. The first three buildings are original to 1865, the building on the corner, the alley, the Surratt boarding house, and the building next to it. It's easy to visualize, even with the modern buildings and facades, the block at the time of the war.

Again Heath, welcome to the new"old Club".