Cover Up of Catholic Crime- Failing To Highlight The Mary Surratt House

in Washington, D.C., famous scene of the planning of the crime of the assassination of U.S. President Lincoln

About Mary Surratt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Surratt

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/2310/then-and-now-surratt-boarding-house/#comments

Then (left): Though photographed ca. 1900, the house (left) wasn't much different from when Mary Surratt ran a boarding house at 604 H. Street, NW. She became connected to the Lincoln Assassination because she rented rooms to John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators prior to the attack on President Lincoln. Image from the Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection

Now (right): The main entrances have been moved to the ground level rather than the second. While largely intact, there is not much of historical significance beyond the shell and the address. Currently, both the Surratt house and the structure to the west of it have Chinese food services on the ground floor.

Some relevant comments:

One of the great mysteries of D.C. is why this old house hasn't been acquired by the National Park Service and restored. Its history is not insignificant.

by John Fuller on Jan 4, 2011 3:51 pm • link • report

I can't believe that the Historical Society would allow a chinese restaurant to move into a building as important in history as Mary Surratt's home on H Street in Washington, D.C. Good grief, chinese food is not important but our American history is. It hardly resembles the same boarding house that it use to. I would just bet that the people leasing that building now do not know the history of it.

by bunz on Aug 18, 2011 11:56 am • link • report

I think it ought to be preserved as it is still a part of history...People are fascinated by anything connected to the Civil War...

by Peggy Cochran on Aug 11, 2013 6:53 am • link • report

I will never understand why this building was allowed to be turned into a Chinese Restaurant!! ~ Why wasn't it preserved as an Historic Building, if I had Lots of money I would buy the building and restore it to it's original condition!

by Sandra Freeman on Mar 22, 2014 9:01 am • link • report

I agree with you Sandra...It is so much a part of history that should not be erased or forgotten! With being located right here in Washington, D.C. it is every bit as important as Ford's Theater and the house where Lincoln died....

by Peggy Cochran on Mar 24, 2014 9:16 pm • link • report

Please tell me why the Historical Society did not take possession of the Surratt House and keep is in it's original state and open to the public as a place of historical significance?

by Jeanne Heyworth on Mar 24, 2014 11:20 pm • link • report

That is what I would like to know, Jeanne....

by Peggy Cochran on Mar 25, 2014 9:29 am • link • report

I have to concur with Jeanne & Peggy, so tragic to see this building being used as a purveyor off fast-food; the Historical Society should really.....well, you know?!! Then again, if they're anything like 'English Heritage', the UK's equivalent of the Historical Society, then I wouldn't expect something to happen anytime soon.

by Micky Vee (England) on Apr 2, 2014 9:56 pm • link • report

Mary Surratt's boarding house served as a nest/bed for the perpetrators of one of the most horrible crimes in all of American history. That that historic building should turn into a restaurant is a crime. It should be renovated, brought back to its appearance in 1865, then made a museum... It would/will be very well attended, to say the least.

by Sten on Jul 17, 2016 5:49 pm • link • report

Indeed, it is as if the U.S. government has plenty of people within it that would rather not highlight this piece of history revealing the extensive Roman Catholic involvement in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

https://www.amazon.com/Catholics-Mrs-Mary-Surratt-Conspirator/dp/0761840230