After less than a year of living in the Samuel Osgood House on Cherry Street, George Washington began to have an itch for a larger space.

Even with the prospect of the seat of government devolving away from New York, arrangements were made for him, his family, enslaved people, and other staff to move downtown to 39-41 Broadway.

This home, the property of one Alexander Macomb, was four stories tall with an attic, boasted a rear balcony from which one had a capacious view of the Hudson River, and had several good rooms for dinners and receptions.

The house—quite newly built at this time, dating only to 1788—had been deemed luxurious enough to be rented by a series of ambassadors from France. Washington moved in on February 23, 1790, and stayed until he and the rest of the government departed for Philadelphia in the late summer.

It is reportedly in front of this residence that Alexander Hamilton had an encounter with Thomas Jefferson, on June 19, 1790, in which Hamilton was found to be in a state of distress over his uphill battle to get his financial plan passed, and Jefferson invited him to a private dinner to negotiate.

Ultimately their compromise plan to adopt Hamilton’s plan in favor of fixing the national capital on the Potomac resulted from this.

Hamilton was assuredly at Washington’s home on multiple other occasions.