AP Features, June 1st, 2007
Ford's Theatre, the site of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination, will be mostly off-limits for visitors for the next year and a half while it undergoes renovations.
The theater in northwest Washington is slated to get an $8.5 million upgrade. The improvements include the theater's first elevator, new restrooms and renovations to the heating, air conditioning, lighting and sound systems, the National Park Service said.
An exception to the closure will be the Ford's Theatre Society's annual production of "A Christmas Carol." It will go on as usual from late November through December, said Hannah Olanoff, a spokeswoman for the society. Other than that, the society has cleared its calendar for the coming season. It usually puts on four shows during the September-to-June season.
The 144-year-old theater last underwent restoration in the 1960s, said Park Service spokesman Bill Line. The current repairs are being done in part to improve access for the disabled.
Thursday's announcement of the closure was made with little public fanfare, but Line said the Park Service previously had alerted tour operators. Petersen House, the home across the street where Lincoln died, will still be open to tourists.
The Park Service hopes to reopen the theater in November 2008. About 1 million people visit each year.
John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the back of the head the evening of April 14, 1865, as he sat with his wife in a private box watching the comedy "Our American Cousin." Lincoln was carried to the Petersen house and died the next morning.
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