Original Federal Hall demolished

The original Federal Hall on Wall Street, where George Washington took the oath of office in 1789 and the first U.S. Congress sat, was demolished in 1812 and no longer exists. The present Federal Hall National Memorial at the site is a later 1842 building that commemorates the vanished original. The disappearance of the first Federal Hall is documented in contemporary records and later histories of early U.S. government sites.