Though Keens Steakhouse opened two decades after Abraham Lincoln passed away, the 141-year-old New York City institution pays homage to the 16th president as if he were a beloved regular. The restaurant maintains a Lincoln-themed dining room with historic artifacts adorning its walls, including the American flag that was draped over Lincoln’s casket during a seven-state, 13-day funeral train tour prior to his burial.

At the end of the funeral tour, the 37-star flag fell into the possession of an Army doctor named Lewis Applegate, remaining in his family for more than a century. It was donated to a Florida museum in 1996 and put up for auction in 2024, when it sold for a reported $656,250 to businessman Tilman Fertitta — who had also acquired Keens that same month. The museum-quality antique was unveiled to patrons in Keens’ Lincoln Room on February 12, 2026, in celebration of Honest Abe’s 217th birthday.

In addition to the historic flag, the restaurant’s Lincoln Room showcases a framed, blood-stained playbill from Our American Cousin — purported to be the same playbill Lincoln was holding at Ford’s Theatre on the night he was assassinated. It’s said to have been picked up from beneath the president’s chair and taken home by a carpenter’s assistant. The steakhouse also displays a handwritten transcribed copy of the Gettysburg Address, among other Lincoln paraphernalia such as historic photographs and newspaper clippings.