View from Stage, Renovated Ford's Theatre

By 2007, Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site needed updates to its by then 40-year-old reconstruction. New sound, lighting, stage-rigging, and ventilation, as well as an overhaul of seating, created a historically accurate representation of the 1865 theatre. Reopened on February 11, 2009, the night before Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday, prominent figures such as President and Mrs. Obama, Katie Couric, and James Earl Jones attended the ceremony.