Stockton Hall

Leavenworth's Stockton Hall was built in 1857 at the southwest corner of Fourth and Delaware streets. Though not the town's first public hall, it became the most famous. The frame building measured forty-five by one hundred and twenty feet, with storerooms on the ground floor and an upper floor that served as both meeting hall and theater, often used by traveling theatrical troupes. It was named for its promoter, Captain J. B. Stockton, a prominent public-spirited citizen who later commanded Company G, First Kansas Volunteers, when the Civil War began. In the summer of 1858, a meeting there gave birth to the Democratic Party in Kansas, as prominent Democrats of the Kansas Territory and old line Whigs with similar political views adopted a platform that became the party's foundation in the territory. In December 1859, the hall was filled to capacity to welcome Abraham Lincoln during his speaking tour of towns in the Kansas Territory after his debates with Stephen A. Douglas had cast him into the national spotlight. On the night of December 3, 1859, Lincoln spoke there at length on popular sovereignty, the principles of the Republic's Founding Fathers, the likelihood of statehood for the Kansas Territory, and the need to maintain opposition to slavery. Exactly four years to the month later, a touring theatrical troupe appeared on the same stage with actor John Wilkes Booth, who barely sixteen months afterward went to Ford's Theater in Washington, D. C., and assassinated President Lincoln.

Leavenworth, Kansas · United States