Lincoln Assassination Tour: Ford's Theatre & Petersen House

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.00 (12 reviews)

Free cancellationLikely to sell out

1/8

Duration2h–2h 30m

GroupUp to 100

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

The Night Lincoln Died: Walking the Streets Where It Happened

You walk to four key sites—the boarding house, Baptist Alley, Ford's Theatre, and the Petersen House—with an expert guide who layers in the hidden details and human drama of April 1865. Ford's Theatre entry is included; you see the artifacts and the Presidential Box, then cross the street to the room where Lincoln died. The tour connects the Washington you see today with the capital of the Civil War era, and you leave knowing the geography and the sequence of events in a way no book can teach.

2h–2h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Lincoln assassination sites

Pass by Lincoln's inauguration building
Hear story outside National Portrait Gallery
Visit Ford's Theatre and museum
See Petersen House where Lincoln died

The Experience

"He's been shot." That's what someone would have heard shouted into the Washington night on April 14, 1865, and the Lincoln assassination tour follows that moment through the actual locations where it unfolded. You start outside the National Portrait Gallery, where your guide connects the city you see now with the capital Lincoln knew—the streets still recognizable, the buildings still standing. Then you move through Baptist Alley, where Booth's horse waited, and into the boarding house where the conspiracy was actually planned. These aren't museum reconstructions; they're the real places, and standing in them changes how the story lands.

Ford's Theatre is where the tour gets specific. You walk into the same room, stand near the Presidential Box, and see the artifacts—the gun, the playbills, the pieces of that night. Your guide doesn't just tell you what happened; they layer in the details most visitors miss: the play that was running, who was sitting where, what Booth's escape route looked like. The ticket is included, so you're not buying entry separately. After Ford's Theatre, you cross the street to the Petersen House, where Lincoln was carried and died the next morning. The room where his life ended is still there, and the weight of that space—knowing exactly where he took his last breath—is the kind of thing you don't forget.

The tour moves at a walking pace through downtown Washington, and the guide ties each stop to the larger story of the Civil War and what Lincoln's death meant for the country. You're not just collecting facts; you're seeing how a conspiracy unfolded across a few blocks, how quickly everything changed, and how the city itself became part of the narrative. It takes a couple of hours, and by the end you've stood in the actual places where one of America's most dramatic stories played out.

What’s included

Expert-led walking tour of four assassination-related sites.
entry ticket to Ford's Theatre.
access to the Petersen House where Lincoln died.
stories and historical context connecting each location to the events of April 14–15, 1865.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Cornerstone Tours

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to understand the Lincoln assassination through the actual places it happened, not through a museum alone. The guide and the geography do the work of making the story real.