The Peterson House, at 516 10th St. NW, is best known as the "House Where Lincoln Died." Just five days after General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Lincoln sat in the "State Box" at Ford's Theatre, across the street, watching Our American Cousin. A well-known actor, John Wilkes Booth, desperate to aid the dying Confederacy, stepped into the box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He then jumped onto the stage, and cried out "Sic semper tyrannis" just before escaping through the alley.
After being shot, the fatally wounded President was carried by attendants, including Dr. Charles Leale, out into the street, where boarder Henry Safford, standing in the open doorway of his rooming house, gestured for them to bring the president inside. Lincoln was taken into the bedroom in the rear of the parlors and placed on a bed that was not long enough for him. Mrs. Lincoln was escorted across the street by Clara Harris, who had been in the box during the shooting, and whose fiancée, Henry Rathbone, had been stabbed by Booth during the assassination. Rathbone, bleeding severely from the knife wound in his arm, collapsed due to loss of blood after arriving at the Petersen House.
During the night and early morning, military guards patrolled outside to prevent onlookers from coming inside the house. A parade of government officials and physicians was allowed to come inside and pay respects to the unconscious President. Physicians continually removed blood clots which formed over the wound and poured out the excess brain fluid and brain matter from where the bullet had entered Lincoln's head in order to relieve pressure on the brain. However, the external and internal hemorrhaging continued throughout the night. Lincoln died in the house on April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a.m., at age 56.
The federal brick townhouse was built by German-born tailor, William Petersen in 1849. he U.S. Government purchased the house in 1896 and placed it under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service thirty years later. Now furnished with period pieces, the dark, narrow town house looks much as it did on that fateful April night. Today the theatre and house are preserved together as Ford's Theatre National Historic Site.
National Register #66000034 (1966)
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