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An illustration of Federal Hall, depicting its front facade with large columns, decorative elements, and a clock tower. The image includes historical text mentioning it as the seat of Congress.

The afore-mentioned renovation of Federal Hall was complete by the time the First Congress met to certify the results of the first presidential election. This 1790 copperplate engraving depicts George Washington’s swearing in on a crowded balcony, members of Congress looking on. His term began April 30, 1789.

Though the facade was new, the site was familiar to all participants, as the failed Confederation Congress had been meeting in this building, which was New York’s old city hall, for several years. New York City continued as the temporary capital for one more year, until the government moved to Philadelphia, where it would remain for the next decade.

The old city hall is nearly unrecognizable, its scale and structure a canvas for Peter L’Enfant’s showy neoclassical style.

This item is in the collection of the National Park Service,
a reminder of that agency’s enormous role
in preserving precious artifacts
critical to our understanding of the early United States.

Watercolor illustration of the Old City Hall on Wall Street, built in 1699, showing its classical architecture and surrounding trees.

New York’s old city hall, pictured above, was remodeled at the time of the Founding and renamed Federal Hall. By then, the building was 90 years old, having been built in 1699. It was the administrative center of old New York, housing not only the mayor’s office but the city firehouse and a debtor’s prison, as well as the municipal court.

After the Revolution, this building became the seat of the Confederation Congress of the United States. The Congress, then the nation’s sole governing body, met here from 1785 until the Constitution was ratified and put into operation (04 Mar 1789), two days after the Confederation was formally dissolved. The First Congress convened here. New York remained the temporary capital of the US for one year.

As the new government formed, leading New Yorkers began maneuvering to have their city chosen as the permanent capital that the Constitution required. They raised funds to transform the Old City Hall into a more imposing structure imbued with Federal style. They employed a French-born artist, Pierre (“Peter”) L’Enfant, an officer of the Army Corps of Engineers and veteran of the Revolution, to furnish the plans. Occasionally during 1788, the Confederation Congress met at Fraunces Tavern, as workmen renovated the old city hall.

RELATED:
Fortenbaugh, Robert, The Nine Capitals of the United States (Internet Archive)
Historic Battlefield Trust, Early Capitals of the United States
US House of Representatives, Meeting Places for the Continental Congresses and the Confederation Congress, 1774–1789

Image: from this source.