Surratt Boarding House - Washington, D.C

The Mary Surratt boarding house is located on H Street in Washington, D.C.  The Federal Style building was built in 1843 and purchased by John Surratt in 1853.  After Surratt’s untimely death in 1862 his wife,  Mary, attempted to run the family tavern in Surratsville, Maryland, but growing weary of the work involved in operating the business on her own she moved back to D.C. in October of 1864.  Shortly thereafter she began running her home as a boarding house.  In early 1865 it was the meeting place of the Lincoln conspirators: John Wilkes Booth, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and George Atzerodt.  Booth had met Surratt’s son, John Jr., previously, and through him was able to secure a meeting place in the house.  Atzerodt, Powell and Herold were sometime boarders at the house.  Their initial plan was to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and blackmail the Union Army into resuming the prisoner exchange program with the Confederates that Ulysses S. Grant had suspended in 1864.  But, in April the Civil War seemed to be over, with the fall of Richmond and the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.  With this Booth’s plan evolved into one of vengeance for the South.  After a couple of abortive attempts to go through with their plan Booth set a final date.  On April 14, 1865 the conspirators met here at Surratt’s boarding house for a final time.  Earlier in the day Booth found out that President Lincoln would be attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre.  Their new plan would have Booth assassinate Lincoln, while Powell would kill Secretary of State William H. Seward and Atzerodt would kill Vice President Andrew Johnson.  Shortly after 10:00 Booth carried out his assassination of the President, while Powell viciously attacked, but was unable to kill, Seward in his home.  Atzerodt got cold feet and backed out of his attack on Johnson altogether.  The conspirators scattered.  Booth and Herold fled into Southern Maryland, where Booth was eventually killed and Herold surrendered.  Aztzerodt hid at a farm in Germantown, Maryland and was apprehended on April 20.  Authorities came here to the boarding house on April 17 to question Mary Surratt about her involvement.  Several of her boarders had claimed to see Booth and his cohorts coming and going from the house frequently for the past few months.  While detectives were here talking with her Lewis Powell approached the home claiming to be a ditch digger.  Surratt denied knowing who he was, but the detectives arrested them both anyway.  After a seven week trial all of the conspirators, including Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen and Samuel Mudd, were found guilty.  Surratt, Atzerodt, Herold, and Powell were hanged on July 7.  Surratt was the first woman to be executed by the government.  Today the boarding house sits in Chinatown and is occupied by the Wok and Roll restaurant.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.                

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