In which building was George Washington inaugurated as the first U.S. president?

George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president at Federal Hall in New York City on April 30, 1789.

Federal Hall stood on Wall Street at the site of the former City Hall. The building was remodeled for the first Congress under the Constitution, and Washington took the presidential oath on its balcony before a large public crowd. Chancellor Robert Livingston administered the oath.

The ceremony occurred before Washington moved to the later presidential residences in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The White House was not completed until 1800, so it could not have hosted the first inauguration. The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., was also not the setting for Washington’s ceremony.

The original Federal Hall was demolished in 1812. The current Federal Hall National Memorial, built in the 1840s, commemorates the site and Washington’s inauguration. A statue of Washington stands outside the memorial on Wall Street.