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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	FEDERAL HALL NATIONAL MEMORIAL New York	Federal Hall National Memorial
New York County, at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, just off Broadway, in lower Manhattan; address: 26 Wall Street New York, NY 10005. Federal Hall National Memorial

This memorial commemorates a series of momentous events in our history. On the site of the memorial once stood Federal Hall, the realtered and renamed City Hall. Federal Hall was the first Capitol of the United States under the Constitution and the meeting place of the First Congress. On its balcony General Washington took the oath of office as President. In it Congress created the Departments of State, War, and Treasury, and the Supreme Court; and adopted the Bill of Rights. City Hall was also the scene of many historic events. In that building the trial and acquittal of John Peter Zenger marked the first major victory in the continuing struggle for freedom of the press and speech in the United States; the Stamp Act Congress protested "taxation without representation;" and the Second Continental Congress adopted resolutions calling the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, transmitted the completed Constitution to the State legislatures for ratification, and adopted the Northwest Ordinance.

Prior to the building of City Hall, in 1699-1700, the city government had been quartered in the old Dutch Stadt Huys. Not until late in 1703 did it transfer its functions to the new building. In 1734 John Peter Zenger, charged with publishing "seditious libels" in his newspaper, the New-York Weekly Journal, was imprisoned in the garret of City Hall. The following year his defense attorney, Andrew Hamilton, one of the most brilliant lawyers in the colonies, won acquittal and helped pave the way for a free press and freedom of speech. During October 1765 the Stamp Act Congress convened at City Hall and offered the first united colonial opposition to English colonial policy. Delegates from 9 of the 13 Colonies participated. The Congress sent an address to the King, petitioned Parliament, and drew up a Declaration of Rights and Grievances. The following year Parliament voted to rescind the Stamp Act.

A view of Wall Street, including Federal Hall and Trinity Church, in 1789. The First Congress convened in Federal Hall. Lithographed from a contemporary print (the Cornelius Tiebout view). Courtesy, Library of Congress.

In September 1774 the First Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia in Carpenters' Hall, now a part of Independence National Historical Park. It appealed in vain to the King and the people of Great Britain for the redress of colonial grievances. Before the Second Continental Congress convened in May 1775, the War for Independence was in progress. The next year Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. After the war the Continental Congress selected New York City as the seat of government and in January 1785 began meeting in City Hall. Here, in February 1787, it adopted the resolution calling for the convening of a Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia. Late in September, after 4 months of labor by the Convention, Congress transmitted the Constitution from City Hall to the States for ratification. While the Constitutional Convention had met, the Continental Congress adopted the famous Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which provided for the government of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio River.

In September 1788 Congress designated New York City as the capital of the United States under the Constitution. The New York City Council promptly offered the use of the City Hall and approved the expenditure of funds for repairing the building. In 1788-89 Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant supervised the construction. At the time the First Congress under the Constitution held its initial session, in March 1789, the building, then known as Federal Hall, was said to be the most beautiful in the United States. In an upper chamber the electoral votes were counted, and an announcement was made of the unanimous election of George Washington as first President. On April 30, 1789, Washington took his oath of office on the balcony. Between July and September Congress created the Departments of State, War, and Treasury, and the Supreme Court; adopted the Bill of Rights; and transmitted the latter to the States for ratification.

In July 1790, during the second session of the First Congress, Congress selected a 10-mile-square site on the banks of the Potomac as the site of the permanent capital, to be called the District of Columbia, land for which was ceded by Virginia and Maryland. On the last day of August, the Federal Government moved from New York to Philadelphia, where it remained for about a decade while the permanent Capital was being constructed. Utilized alternately for State and city offices during the following two decades, in 1812 the crumbling Federal Hall was sold for salvage for $425.

Federal Hall.

In 1842 the present structure, an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture, was completed on the site of Federal Hall. It served as the New York City Custom House until 1862, when it became the United States Sub-Treasury. Later it housed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a number of minor government offices. Subsequently most of these were relocated. Civic and patriotic organizations in and about New York then conceived the idea of preserving the structure as a memorial to the founding of our Federal form of government. The building was designated a national historic site in 1939 and became a national memorial in 1955.

Federal Hall National Memorial is administered by the National Park Service with the cooperation of the Federal Hall Memorial Associates, Inc. On exhibit are historic objects and documents associated with the site. One room, set aside as a memorial to John Peter Zenger, features exhibits showing the struggle of the colonies for freedom of the press. The stone on which Washington traditionally stood to take his oath of office is preserved in the rotunda.