Museum
The house was confiscated by the federal government after Mary Surratt's conviction. It was later sold, and was privately owned until 1965. In 1939, when owned by Mrs. Ella Curtin, the structure suffered light damage in a fire.
On February 24, 1965, the Surratt House was donated to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) by B. K. Miller, a longtime Clinton merchant, and his son, Thomas V. Miller. The plan at the time was to move the house to the Clinton Regional Park (now Louise F. Cosca Regional Park), but that did not happen. In 1968, the M-NCPPC paid roughly $76,000 to purchase a 1 acre (0.40 ha) plot of land beneath the house. The following year, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development provided the M-NCPPC a $38,115 grant to help pay for the land purchase.
The Surratt House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The house was restored by the M-NCPPC, and the restoration completed on October 2, 1975.
Citizens interested in Mary Surratt formed the Surratt Society in 1975. The Surrattsville tavern and house are a historical site run today by the Surratt Society. It is devoted to mid-19th century Maryland life and the Abraham Lincoln assassination, especially to conspiracy theories surrounding the Lincoln assassination which tend to exonerate Surratt. Some of the furniture and decorative artworks in the house are originals owned by Mary Surratt. The James O. Hall Research Center is located there.
A modern private home next to the Surratt House was acquired by the M-NCPCC, and serves as a gift shop, research center, and offices.
Read more about this topic: Surratt House Museum
Famous quotes containing the word museum:
“Soaked by the sparkling waters of America.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 2740, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“No one to slap his head.”
—Hawaiian saying no. 190, ‘lelo No’Eau, collected, translated, and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui, Bishop Museum Press, Hawaii (1983)
“When I go into a museum and see the mummies wrapped in their linen bandages, I see that the lives of men began to need reform as long ago as when they walked the earth. I come out into the streets, and meet men who declare that the time is near at hand for the redemption of the race. But as men lived in Thebes, so do they live in Dunstable today.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)