For America250, where did George Washington take the presidential oath in 1789?

George Washington took the presidential oath at Federal Hall in New York City in 1789.

The ceremony took place on April 30, 1789, at the building on Wall Street that served as the first seat of the new federal government. New York City was the national capital at the time, before the government moved to Philadelphia and later to Washington, D.C.

Robert R. Livingston, the chancellor of New York, administered the oath on Federal Hall’s second-floor balcony. Washington then delivered an inaugural address to Congress in the Senate Chamber. A crowd gathered outside, and the public nature of the event helped establish the inauguration as a national civic ceremony.

The location is sometimes confused with Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated and adopted or signed. It is also different from the White House, which was not occupied by a president until John Adams moved into it in 1800.