On this day in New York · May 7, 1789
New York Throws the First Inaugural Ball
A week after taking the oath at Federal Hall, George Washington showed up alone to a ball on Broadway, danced the minuet with the city's best-dressed strangers, and invented a tradition every president since has been imitating.
The facts
- Date
- Evening of May 7, 1789, one week after Washington's inauguration at Federal Hall on April 30
- Location
- A building on Broadway near Wall Street, then the federal government's temporary headquarters in New York City
- Guest of honor
- George Washington, who danced the minuet; Martha Washington had not yet arrived in New York from Virginia
- Party favor
- Every woman at the ball received a Paris-made fan that opened to reveal a printed profile of Washington
One week after George Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall on April 30, 1789, sponsors threw the new president a ball in a building on Broadway near Wall Street, then the seat of the federal government. Washington came without his wife, who had not yet made the trip from Virginia, and spent the evening dancing the minuet while New York's society turned out for a shot at the floor with him. Every woman who attended left with a fan made in Paris, its ivory frame opening on a printed profile of the guest of honor. It is generally counted as the first inaugural ball the country ever held, staged in a city that would not remain the capital much longer.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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nearly every lady of good breeding was at the ball that night hoping to get the chance to dance with the President
Today I Found Out, recounting the May 7, 1789 ball
Source: Today I Found Out -
Every woman who attended the Inaugural Ball was given an exquisite fan crafted in Paris
Today I Found Out, recounting the May 7, 1789 ball
Source: Today I Found Out
Why it still matters
Every inaugural ball since, wherever the capital happened to be, has been chasing the same move New York improvised first: turn a swearing-in into a party. It is also a reminder that this city, not Washington D.C., was where the presidency actually started.
Sources
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