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After Lincoln was
mortally wounded at Ford's Theatre, the doctors had him carried out into
the street, where a boarder standing in the open doorway of his rooming
house across the street, gestured for them to bring the president inside.
Thus, Lincoln died in the home of William Petersen, a German-born tailor.
Today, the dark, narrow town house looks much as it did on that fateful
night. You'll see the front parlor where Mary Todd Lincoln spent the
night with her son, Robert. In the back parlor, Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton questioned witnesses and announced on April 15, "Now he belongs to
the ages." Lincoln died, lying diagonally because he was so tall, on a bed
the size of the one you see here. In 1896, the government bought the house
for $30,000 and it is now maintained by the National Park Service.
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