Petersen House: Lincoln's death room, a different bed

The bed in the room where Abraham Lincoln died is not the bed on which he died. At Petersen House, across Tenth Street from Ford's Theatre, a similar nineteenth-century bed helps visitors understand the room. The original belongs to the Chicago History Museum.

Lincoln died here on April 15, 1865, after being shot at the theatre the night before. The house had been a home and boarding business. Its later preservation brought together surviving parts of the building, furnishings from the period and reproductions suggesting its earlier appearance.

Collecting helped turn the address into a memorial. Osborn H. Oldroyd displayed his Lincoln collection in the house during the 1890s. The federal government bought the property in 1896 and acquired his collection in 1926. The National Park Service identifies that collection as the foundation of the Ford's Theatre museum holdings.

The Park Service's room guide distinguishes what survives from what was supplied later. Much of the interior woodwork, the stairs and many floorboards are original. The wallpaper and carpets are reproductions. The furniture dates from the period but did not furnish this house in 1865.

The period bed helps visitors picture a furnished room. The stairs and woodwork offer another connection: they belong to the house itself. Knowing the difference gives a visitor more to notice than the room's most famous object.

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The District Files

The District Files follows Lincoln's assassination among eighteen Washington cases, including Watergate, the Blair House attack and Chandra Levy. Explore the capital's investigations beyond this look at the later preservation of Petersen House.

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