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Federal Hall was the first capitol building of the United States under the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
. Serving as the meeting place of the First United States Congress and the site of
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
's first presidential inauguration, the building existed at the intersection of Wall and Broad streets in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
, New York City, from 1703 to 1812. The current site, at 26 Wall Street in the Financial District of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, is occupied by Federal Hall National Memorial, a Greek Revival–style building completed in 1842 as the
Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...
. The
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
operates the building as a national memorial commemorating the historic events that occurred at the previous structure. The original, Federal-style structure on the site was built as New York's second City Hall from 1699 to 1703. The building hosted the 1765 Stamp Act Congress before the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
. After the United States became an independent nation, it served as the meeting place for the
Congress of the Confederation The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States from March 1, 1781, until March 3, 1789, during the Confederation ...
, the nation's first central government under the
Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...
, from 1785 to 1789, and the building was expanded and updated. With the establishment of the United States federal government in 1789, it hosted the 1st Congress and the inauguration of George Washington as the nation's first president. It was demolished in 1812. The current structure, designed by Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, was built as New York's U.S. Custom House before serving as a Subtreasury building from 1862 to 1925. The memorial is constructed of Tuckahoe marble. Its architectural features include a colonnade of Doric columns, as well as a domed rotunda designed by the sculptor John Frazee. Outside the building is a statue of George Washington by John Quincy Adams Ward. The facade and part of the interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.


First structure

In the 17th century, the area north of Wall Street was occupied by John Damen's farm. Damen sold the land in 1685 to captain John Knight, an officer of Thomas Dongan's administration. Knight resold the land to Dongan, who resold it in 1689 to Abraham de Peyster and Nicholas Bayard. Both de Peyster and Bayard served as Mayors of New York.


City Hall

The original structure on the site was built as New York's second City Hall from 1699 to 1703, on Wall Street, in what is today the Financial District of
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
. This structure had been designed by James Evetts to replace Stadt Huys, the city's first administrative center. It was two stories high, with wings extending west and east. The stones from Wall Street's old fortifications were used for City Hall. Also housed at City Hall was a public library (which had 1,642 volumes by the year 1730), as well as a firehouse with two fire engines imported from London. The upper stories were used as a debtors' prison. In 1735, John Peter Zenger, a newspaper publisher, was arrested for committing libel against the British royal governor and was imprisoned and tried there. His acquittal on the grounds that the material he had printed was true established
freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic Media (communication), media, especially publication, published materials, shoul ...
as it was later defined in the Bill of Rights. City Hall was first remodeled in 1765, when a third story was added. That October, delegates from nine of the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...
met as the Stamp Act Congress in response to the levying of the Stamp Act by the
Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707, Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a ...
. Drawn together for the first time in organized opposition to British policy, the attendees drafted a message to King George III, the
House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
, and the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
, claiming entitlement to the same rights as the residents of Britain and protesting the colonies' " taxation without representation". The Sons of Liberty took over the building from the British during the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
in 1775. Afterward, City Hall served as the meeting place for the Continental Congress.


Federal Hall

After the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, City Hall was home to the
Congress of the Confederation The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States from March 1, 1781, until March 3, 1789, during the Confederation ...
of the United States under the
Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...
. The first meeting of the Confederation Congress took place at City Hall on April 13, 1784.


Design and construction

The Congress of the Confederation still needed a permanent structure, and the New York City Council and mayor James Duane wished for the city to be the United States capital. Private citizens and the government of New York City contributed $65,000 toward the renovation of the old City Hall. The Patriots felt that the building should be remodeled in a distinctively American style while also preserving the pre-colonial structure.
Pierre Charles L'Enfant Pierre "Peter" Charles L'Enfant (; August 2, 1754June 14, 1825) was a French-American artist, professor, and military engineer. In 1791, L'Enfant designed the baroque-styled plan for the development of Washington, D.C., after it was designated ...
, a French architect who had helped the Americans during the Revolutionary War, was selected to remodel the structure. L'Enfant's expansion was characteristic of Georgian-style designs, although he used larger proportions, and added American motifs. An arched promenade was built through the street-level basement, with four heavy Tuscan columns supporting a balcony. On balcony level, four high Doric columns were installed, supporting a pediment that depicted an American eagle with thirteen arrows (one for each of the original Thirteen Colonies). L'Enfant also created a recessed gallery behind the columns, and he placed decorative swags above the second-story windows. The ground-story room for the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
measured across and about two stories high. A smaller room for the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
was on the second floor. L'Enfant's design influenced the development of what became the Federal style.


Usage

The city moved all of its municipal offices out of the building in late 1788, but the New York Society Library's 3,500-volume library remained in the building for the time being. Work progressed quickly between September 1788 and March 1789. The building was renamed Federal Hall in 1789 when New York was chosen as the nation's first seat of government under the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
. The 1st Congress met there beginning on March 4, 1789. The first inauguration of George Washington, the first-ever
inauguration In government and politics, inauguration is the process of swearing a person into office and thus making that person the incumbent. Such an inauguration commonly occurs through a formal ceremony or special event, which may also include an inau ...
of a
President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
, occurred on the balcony of the building on April 30, 1789. Many of the most important legislative actions in the United States occurred with the 1st Congress at Federal Hall. For example, on September 25, 1789, the
United States Bill of Rights The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten list of amendments to the United States Constitution, amendments to the United States Constitution. It was proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the Timeline of dr ...
was proposed in Federal Hall, establishing the freedoms claimed by the Stamp Act Congress. The Judiciary Act of 1789 was also enacted in the building, setting up the United States federal court system. In 1790, the United States capital moved to
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Federal Hall was turned into quarters for the state assembly and courts. The Federal Hall building was one of the few structures in the area to survive an 1804 fire that caused $2 million in damage (equivalent to $ million in ). With the opening of the current New York City Hall in 1812, the New York City government no longer needed Federal Hall, and the building was demolished. Part of the original railing and balcony floor, where Washington had been inaugurated, is on display in the memorial and was at one point held by the New-York Historical Society. Nassau Street had originally curved around the building to the west, while Broad Street had run to the east. Nassau Street was straightened after the building was demolished, and it runs to the west of the modern Federal Hall National Memorial.


Second structure

The current Greek Revival structure was the first building that was specifically constructed for the U.S. Custom House for the Port of New York. The Custom House previously had been located in Government House, a converted residence on Bowling Green. The old building was described as "ordinary and inconvenient", and it had become overcrowded, prompting the federal government to lease additional space in 1831. Samuel Swartwout, the Customs Collector for the Port of New York, advocated in 1832 for "spacious, safe, secure" accommodations. Land for the new building had been purchased incrementally in 1816, 1824, and 1832.


Custom House

The firm of Town and Davis, composed of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, won an architectural design competition for the new Custom House building and was awarded the contract for the building's design in August 1833. Town estimated that the plans would cost $250,000 if the Custom House building was made of granite, or $320,000 to $350,000 if it was of masonry, brick, and marble. The original design called for a colonnade of eight columns facing Wall and Pine Streets, square
pilasters In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
on Nassau Street, a massive coffered dome protruding above the roof, and a cruciform floor plan. The building would have also been decorated with details such as acroteria,
metope A metope (; ) is a rectangular architectural element of the Doric order, filling the space between triglyphs in a frieze , a decorative band above an architrave. In earlier wooden buildings the spaces between triglyphs were first open, and ...
s, and triangular pediments. Town suggested that Samuel Thomson, architect of the Administration Building at Sailors' Snug Harbor, be named the construction superintendent. Work on the Custom House began in January 1834, but the Customs Service then requested that the plans for the new building be downsized due to increasing costs. As a result, the dome was reduced in size and the original double colonnade on the facade was changed to a single colonnade. Thomson resigned in April 1835, taking the plans with him. Sculptor John Frazee was named the superintendent in Thomson's stead; he worked to piece together Town and Davis's original plans. Frazee influenced the design of the interior and decorative details, and he modified plans for the attic to a full-height third story. Frazee got into a dispute with building commissioner Walter Bowne and was dismissed in 1840, although he was rehired in 1841. The Custom House building opened in 1842 at a cost of $928,312 (equivalent to $ million in ). Importers would perform their business at a counter in the building's central rotunda. The building came to be associated with political patronage. "The Seven Stages of the Office Seeker", an 1852 print by Edward Williams Clay, satirized how Democratic Party patronage under New York governor Martin Van Buren was centered around the Custom House. By 1861, the structure had become too small to accommodate all of the
customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...
duties of the U.S. Custom House for the Port of New York. The U.S. government decided to move the customs offices one block to 55 Wall Street, then occupied by the Merchants' Exchange. The
federal government of the United States The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
signed a lease with the Merchants' Exchange in February 1862, intending to move into the building that May. The customs offices were moved to 55 Wall Street starting in August 1862.


Subtreasury

After the relocation of the Custom House, 26 Wall Street was transformed into a building for the United States Subtreasury. The Subtreasury desks were arranged around the rotunda of the building.
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
and coin storage vaults were placed along a passage near the north side of the rotunda. Bars were stored to the west, or left, and gold certificates and coins were stored to the east, or right. A vault for small change was also provided. A coin division was on the east side of the building, on the floor of the rotunda, toward Pine Street.
Silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
was stored in the northwest corner of the building, in the basement. An armory was placed on the upper stories, and various fortifications were mounted at the top of the building to protect the money. Adjoining the Subtreasury to the east was the United States Assay Office, a branch of the
United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bull ...
that performed all Mint functions except creating the coinage. At its peak, the Subtreasury building held seventy percent of the federal government's money. In 1883, John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze statue of George Washington was put up on the Subtreasury's ceremonial front steps. The statue "mark dthe exact height Washington stood when taking the oath of
office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
on the balcony" of the eighteenth-century edifice, overlooking the crowds filling Broad Street up to Wall Street. By 1903, the building held over $275 million in gold, silver, and various other types of money; this amounted to nearly one-tenth of all of the United States' money at that point. A plaque memorializing the
Northwest Ordinance The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio and also known as the Ordinance of 1787), enacted July 13, 1787, was an organic act of the Congress of the Co ...
was dedicated at the Subtreasury in 1905. By 1917, the Subtreasury building held $519 million worth of gold and several million dollars more in coins. In the Wall Street bombing of 1920, a bomb was detonated across from the Subtreasury at 23 Wall Street, in what became known as The Corner. Thirty-eight people were killed and 400 injured, though the Subtreasury was undamaged. The Federal Reserve Bank replaced the Subtreasury system in 1920, and the Subtreasury office closed on December 7 of that year. The Assay Office leased the Subtreasury building to the Fed, which was constructing a building of its own, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, two blocks north. The Fed started moving its monetary holdings from the Subtreasury to the new Fed building in May 1924. This prompted concern among local financiers that the federal government was planning to sell the building to a private entity. That July, nationalist group American Defense Society started advocating against a possible sale of the building.


Use by other government offices

Ultimately, the government decided to retain ownership of the Subtreasury, using it as storage space for the Assay Office and as office space for other agencies. The government also considered moving the Bureau of Internal Revenue to the Subtreasury. In October 1924, federal officials announced they would move
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
enforcement agents' offices to the Subtreasury building, using the basement vaults to store confiscated alcoholic beverages. These plans were canceled the next month because of opposition from patriotic and historical societies. In early 1925, the City Club of New York appealed to Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon to preserve the Subtreasury building. U.S. representative Anning Smith Prall proposed a bill that December to allocate $5 million for an expansion of the Subtreasury building. A passport office opened on the Pine Street side of the building in March 1925. The Subtreasury was also used for events such as a 1926 party to celebrate the dedication of the Bowling Green Community House, as well as Constitution Day celebrations. The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) built its Nassau Street Line under the building in the late 1920s, and the Subtreasury was underpinned during the line's construction. The original foundation was only deep, so additional supports were installed underneath, descending to the bedrock. Both houses of Congress passed legislation allowing the BMT line to be built slightly underneath the building. A water main under Nassau Street ruptured in October 1931, severely damaging some of the records that were stored in the basement. A writer for ''The New York Times'' in 1930 characterized the Subtreasury as one of "the big little buildings of Wall Street", along with 23 Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange Building, and Trinity Church. In the early 1930s, the
United States Post Office Department The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet of the Un ...
proposed replacing the Subtreasury building with a post office, which would be a replica of Federal Hall as it appeared in 1789. At the time, the three post-office substations in Lower Manhattan could not adequately accommodate high demand from the surrounding office buildings. The department said much of the Subtreasury's space was unused because historical and patriotic societies had objected to most plans for the building. The Subtreasury continued to be used as a passport office through the mid-1930s.


Federal Hall National Memorial


1930s to 1950s

In 1939, after the government announced plans to demolish the Subtreasury building, a group called Federal Hall Memorial Associates raised money to prevent the building's demolition. On April 29, 1939, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes announced that the Subtreasury would become a historic site. The building was designated as Federal Hall Memorial National Historic Site on May 26, 1939, and an information bureau opened on the rotunda floor, with exhibits related to finance and the
1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...
. The next month, the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
(NPS) took over the Subtreasury building. The memorial commemorated the first building on the site, rather than the extant Subtreasury building. Due to the building's status as a "national shrine", it did not accommodate governmental offices. After several months of negotiations, Federal Hall Memorial Associates was allowed to operate the interior as a museum in January 1940. The memorial opened on Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1940. The ''New York Herald Tribune'' said that, within the United States, Federal Hall Memorial was only matched by Mount Vernon and Independence Hall "in historical interest". The building celebrated its 100th anniversary on Washington's Birthday in 1942. Among the other events that took place at Federal Hall Memorial in the early 1940s were sales of World War II war bonds, Constitution Day celebrations, rallies in support of the United Service Organizations, and stamp sales. Federal Hall Memorial continued to be used for events in the 1950s, including a blood donation drive and a Salvation Army donation drive. In 1952, the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
' Subcommittee of the Interior voted to permit the rehabilitation of Federal Hall. The John Peter Zenger Room, a journalism exhibit, was dedicated at Federal Hall in April 1953. The next year, the U.S. government relocated the building's original wrought-iron fence into the basement because the Tennessee marble under it had started to buckle. As the building is owned by the federal government and managed by the NPS, renovations and restoration proposals must be approved by Congress. In 1954, the
New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City in the United States. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government mod ...
passed a resolution asking Congress to establish a committee to provide suggestions for restoring Federal Hall, the Castle Clinton National Monument, and the Statue of Liberty National Monument. Federal Hall was re-designated as a national memorial on August 11, 1955. The same year, the federal government created the New York City National Shrines Advisory Board. The board first convened in February 1956. The government tentatively allocated $1.621 million for the restoration of Federal Hall, whose interior had become dilapidated. In February 1957, the board recommended allocating $3 million for the restoration of the three sites. By 1960, Interior Secretary Fred A. Seaton announced plans to restore Federal Hall within the next two years. He proposed that local civic groups raise $2.9 million, half of the projected cost, and that the government raise matching funds. The next year, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall announced that the federal government would start redeveloping the three historic sites in advance of the 1964 New York World's Fair. Federal government officials also installed a plaque in front of the building, dedicating it as a "national shrine".


1960s to 1990s

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the building's exterior as a landmark on December 21, 1965. The building was also added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
(NRHP) on October 15, 1966, the day the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was signed. The building's location on Wall Street, and near the New York Stock Exchange Building, made it a "natural rallying place" as ''The New York Times'' described it. As a result, its front steps were used for demonstrations, political rallies, President's Day celebrations, and union drives. After the building closed for restoration in 1968, the NPS said that loitering on the front steps developed into "more of a problem". Among these events were an anti-narcotics rally and a protest against the Vietnam War in 1970. The building reopened to the public in 1972 as a museum. That year, the New York City Bicentennial Corporation issued a commemorative medal honoring the original Federal Hall, as well as New York City during the American Revolution. The LPC held hearings in 1975 to determine whether the interiors of Federal Hall's rotunda, the Morris–Jumel Mansion, and the Bartow–Pell Mansion should be designated as landmarks. The LPC designated all three buildings' interiors as landmarks on May 26, 1975, and the New York City Board of Estimate ratified these designations that July. The NPS hired Phoebe Dent Weil to restore the George Washington statue on the front steps in 1978. The Whitney Museum opened a temporary branch at Federal Hall in 1982. This was actually the third location of the Whitney's first satellite branch, which had previously been housed at 55 Water Street and the First Police Precinct Station House. The satellite branch occupied four galleries on the mezzanine of Federal Hall (around the central rotunda), while the NPS hosted history exhibits in other parts of the building. The Whitney closed the Federal Hall branch in 1984, eventually reopening at 33 Maiden Lane in 1988. During this decade, Richard Jenrettethe chairman of banking house Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, which was headquartered nearbystarted soliciting $500,000 in private donations to renovate Federal Hall, in conjunction with Federal Hall Memorial Associates. Although the group planned to renovate the rotunda into a reception area with contemporary furnishings, by 1985, only $73.000 had been raised and no contemporary furnishings had been acquired. Federal officials announced in 1986 that Federal Hall would be renovated; the spaces would be cleaned and painted, and mechanical systems would be replaced. The memorial's second floor would contain two galleries about the
Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
, and an exhibit about the original building would be installed as well. Federal Hall hosted a reenactment of Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1989, the event's 200th anniversary. The reenactment, attended by U.S. president George Bush, was intended to raise $700,000 for the museum, which opened to the public after this event. In addition to Constitution-related exhibits, the museum hosted temporary exhibits such as a display of
Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...
artwork, a showcase of New York City designated landmarks, and an exhibit about the abolition of slavery in the United States.


2000s to present

By the beginning of the 21st century, Federal Hall contained numerous large cracks. During the
September 11, 2001, attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Hijackers in the September 11 attacks#Hijackers, Nineteen terrorists hijacked four com ...
, which caused the nearby collapse of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, 300 people sheltered at the memorial. Due to concerns over the building's structural integrity, Federal Hall was closed for one month following the attacks. When the building reopened, metal detectors similar to those at airports were placed at the entrances. Meanwhile, the cracks in the building were exacerbated following the collapse of the World Trade Center. As a result, in early 2002, the NPS received $16.5 million for repairs to the building. On September 6, 2002, approximately 300 members of Congress traveled from Washington, D.C., to New York to convene in Federal Hall National Memorial as a symbolic show of support for the city; this was the first meeting of Congress in New York City since 1790. Four steel pilings were installed under one of the building's corners in 2003 after investigators found a 24-inch air gap beneath that corner. The site closed on December 3, 2004, for a $16 million renovation, mostly to its foundation. Federal Hall National Memorial reopened in late 2006. The renovated memorial included a visitor center, showcasing other historical sites operated by the NPS in the New York City area. In 2007, the building was designated as a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district. The same year, the metal detectors were removed and replaced with magnetometers because the security screening process took too long, driving away many visitors. This measure increased attendance fourfold. New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and
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invited the 2008 United States presidential candidates,
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...
and
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
, to a town hall forum at Federal Hall, though both candidates declined the offer. McCain did host his own town hall forum at Federal Hall in June 2008. The American Express Foundation donated $75,000 in 2012 toward the restoration of the Washington statue outside the building. In 2015, the National Trust for Historic Preservation said Federal Hall's grand staircase would be renovated after the American Express Foundation had given a $300,000 grant. At the time, the steps had begun to fall into disrepair and showed signs of spalling and cracking. The work was to begin in late 2016. By 2018, local newspaper '' AM New York Metro'' wrote that "cracked walls, peeling paint and a rust-water-stained rotunda are among the deteriorating conditions that greet nearly 300,000 visitors who come there to learn about American history." Federal Hall National Memorial also had damaged floors and arches; the facade had begun to chip; and the columns had cracked and were showing signs of mold and discoloration. The cooling system was replaced in 2020. The NPS temporarily closed the memorial in July 2021 after finding cracked stone. As part of a permanent repair project, the building was to be covered in scaffolding for five to ten years.


Architecture

Federal Hall National Memorial was designed by architects Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis of Town and Davis, with a domed rotunda designed by the sculptor John Frazee. The building is constructed of Tuckahoe marble. Two prominent American ideals are reflected in the current building's
Greek Revival architecture Greek Revival architecture is a architectural style, style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, ...
. Town and Davis's Doric columns on the facade resemble those of the
Parthenon The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...
and serve as a tribute to the democracy of the Greeks. Frazee's domed rotunda echoes the Pantheon and is evocative of the republican ideals of the
ancient Romans The Roman people was the ethnicity and the body of Roman citizenship, Roman citizens (; ) during the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire. This concept underwent considerable changes throughout the long history of the Roman ...
. The building occupies a site, which measures across on Wall Street and on Nassau Street. The structure has a gross floor area of . It has two basement levels, three full above-ground stories, and an attic. The Subtreasury had been constructed with 22 or 25 rooms.


Facade

The facade of the building is made of marble blocks measuring thick. A set of 18 granite steps lead from ground level up to the rotunda. John Quincy Adams Ward's bronze statue of George Washington is placed on the building's ceremonial front steps. At the top of the stairs, a colonnade supports a plain triangular pediment. The lack of sculpture on the pediment may have been influenced by aesthetic considerations, as there were few "qualified sculptors" at the time of the building's construction, according to Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis. Next to the building's western elevation, there was originally a wrought-iron fence about tall and long; it rested on a parapet of Tennessee marble measuring tall. The fence, which was placed about in front of the building, was removed in 1954. When the building was used by the Subtreasury, guards were stationed in three turrets on the roof. These turrets contained grilles through which the guards could fire at invaders. There are also flat
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s on the western facade, along Nassau Street.


Rotunda

The main rotunda of Federal Hall is in diameter. The rotunda is designed as an amphiprostyle: it has balconies on four sides, but it lacks columns between each balcony. The wall of the rotunda contains four sections of colonnade, each containing four columns. The columns each measure high and across. The southern colonnade leads to the main entrance, while the northern colonnade leads to the primary hallway of the building. The outer walls of the eastern and western colonnades contain plainly designed windows. There are gilded-iron balconies behind each colonnade. Between the colonnades are short sections of flat wall, situated between flat
pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
s. The pilasters measure high. Above the balconies are barrel vaulted ceilings. The rotunda had contained four Carrara-marble counters when it was used as the Custom House. The rotunda is topped by a self-supporting masonry saucer dome with a skylight at its center. The dome contains narrow panels with curved bottoms, as well as anthemion motifs at their top and bottom ends. The skylight is surrounded by raised rosettes. The decorations were originally in a gold, blue, and white color scheme. The floor of the rotunda contains gray and cream marble blocks in concentric circles. At the center of the floor is a stone slab, where George Washington once stood.


Activities

The National Park Service operates Federal Hall as a national memorial. The memorial has tourist information about the New York Harbor area's federal monuments and parks, and a New York City tourism information center. The gift shop has colonial and early American items for sale. Normally its exhibit galleries are open free to the public daily, except national holidays, and guided tours of the site are offered throughout the day. The memorial has several permanent exhibits. These include ''George Washington's Inauguration Gallery'', including the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
used to swear his oath of office; ''Freedom of the Press'', the imprisonment and trial of John Peter Zenger; and ''New York: An American Capital'', preview exhibit created by the
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
. Among the items displayed are a piece of the balcony upon which Washington stood in his first inauguration. Various temporary exhibitions have also been shown at Federal Hall. For instance, in 2023 the building hosted a site-specific theatre performance, '' The Democracy Project''.


Access

Federal Hall is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays and is closed on weekends. The memorial is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 via a ramp at its rear, on Pine Street. The M55 bus stops nearby on Broadway, while the M15 and M15 SBS stop nearby on Water Street. In addition, the Broad Street station of the
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
, serving the , is directly under Federal Hall. The memorial had an estimated 200,000 annual visitors by 2015, representing about one percent of the 15 million people who visited the intersection of Wall, Nassau, and Broad Streets every year. , the memorial had 63,314 visitors.


On U.S. postage

Engraved renditions of Federal Hall appear on multiple U.S. postage stamps. The first stamp showing Federal Hall was issued on April 30, 1939, the 150th anniversary of President Washington's inauguration, where he is depicted on the balcony of Federal Hall taking the oath of office. The second issue was released in 1957, the 200th anniversary of Alexander Hamilton's birth. This issue depicts
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
and a full view of Federal Hall. In addition, in 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative 25-cent stamp in 1988, the 200th anniversary of when New York ratified the United States Constitution. The stamp depicted the original Federal Hall, Wall Street, and Trinity Church's steeple.


See also

* List of national memorials of the United States * List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan below 14th Street * National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan below 14th Street


References

Notes Sources * * * * * * * ''The National Parks: Index 2001–2003''. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.


External links

* , National Park Service
Federal Hall


National Parks of NY Harbor Conservancy


U. S. Custom House, 28 Wall Street, New York, NY
Historic American Buildings Survey ** Engraving
Federal Hall, The Seat of Congress
* Lithograph
A View of the Federal Hall, 1797
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