With two months to go, workers are completing renovations at Ford's Theatre. The building will reopen to the public in February for bicentennial events commemorating President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. (Photo by Laura Olson)
by Laura Olson
Weeks after President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, a tribute to another Illinois president will take the stage just blocks from Obama's future home.
The final preparations of the Ford's Theatre renovations are wrapping up so organizers can reopen doors in February to celebrate Honest Abe Lincoln's 200th birthday.
Though the reopening date of February 11 will miss the teeming masses expected over Inauguration weekend, organizers are excited about a new lobby space as well as improved technological capabilities for the facility's performances.
During a hard-hat tour Thursday, theatre director Paul Tetreault said the project is still on schedule for the birthday celebration and has remained close to its $20 million budget. The majority of renovations have been completed, except the installation of the new seating and the theatrical systems.
The theatre closed in August 2007, when work began on making it ADA-accessible, adding a gift shop and concession stand, installing additional restrooms and updating the heating and air-conditioning systems.
The major addition was a lobby added on the ground level of an adjoining office building, which will allow tour-goers to gather inside instead of snaking down the block outside the theatre.
"We had a really tiny lobby," Tetreault said. "One of the tricky things was that our box office was in another building."
At the center of the new lobby will be a display case that will showcase the coat that Lincoln wore on the night of his assassination, Apr. 14, 1865.
One of the lobby's elevators will connect with a parking garage on the block, allowing visitors to enter the lobby without going outside.
With two months left to finish construction, the stage and audience areas still look like a construction site. Wires and work lights string above the seating area, and a wooden base awaits the 650 plush red-and-gold seats that will be installed in January.
"There was a tremendous amount of work done behind the walls," Tetreault said.
The updates are a historical recreation of what the 145-year-old theatre, which was originally a Baptist church, looked like when it closed after Lincoln's assassination. The two side walls and the front façade are from the original building, but the rest has been reconstructed.
Luckily for renovators, Tetreault said, government officials at the time asked photographer Matthew Brady to document the crime scene, leaving a thorough record to guide restorations.
The museum in the theatre's basement also has been receiving a facelift, and will reopen later in the spring. Tours will resume February 17, with timed entry to help prevent the long lines.
Tickets already available online for the bicentennial events, which will begin with a play commissioned by the theatre to tell the story of Lincoln's life called "The Heavens are Hung in Black."
A special VIP performance of the play will take place on February 11. Tetreault said the Obamas have been invited -- but no confirmation yet on whether the president-elect will be there to honor his Illinois colleague.
View of the theatre's orchestra level before the renovations began...and what it looks like currently.
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