Assassination Trivia

[Houmes]

You win, Eva! Kudos! Going north from Ford's Theatre this is the northernmost building I've seen in any photo. Other photos I have seen taken from the north don't include this structure. The photo I used was cropped from a photo in When Lincoln Died: The Assassination, The Funeral Journey, The Pursuit and Trial of the Conspirators, The Complete Story in Pictures and in the Words of His Day by Ralph Borreson.

I knew I had seen that photo before and that somehow it was related to Ford's Theatre. Ralph Borreson actually donated the negatives from his book's photos to our Surratt House Museum. BTW: I do recommend his book - sort of a mini-Twenty Days...

Kathy Canavan has researched Tenth Street in 1865. Perhaps she knows something about this particular structure.

This photo has always been a favorite of mine. The sandwich board in the foreground advertises a benefit for Jeannie Gourlay (a presentation of Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon). This benefit was to have taken place on April 15, 1865 but never happened for obvious reasons. Using the sandwich board in the foreground to date the photo (it wouldn't have been up long before April 15th and it certainly wouldn't have been up long after), it is probably the photo which most closely depicts what that side of 10 street and Ford's Theatre looked like at the time of the assassination.

Does anyone know who took the photo or the exact date it was taken?

Thanks!

John Ford was arrested three times, the last on May 6th. He was finally freed on May 27th and began lobbying Stanton for his theatre to be reopened. The Octoroon, originally scheduled to be performed on April 15th, was now rescheduled for opening on Monday, July 10th (see: Backstage at the Lincoln Assassation, by Thomas A. Bogar p230). This was not to happen. Although Edwin Stanton reluctantly released the theatre to John Ford at 2 pm on June 22, it was closed again after Brevt. Major General Thomas Ewing, Jr., attorney for Spangler, was told by him the guards were muttering that any reopening would cause soldiers to lock it up, destroy the building, or gut it (see: p187).