The First Congress convened in 1789 at New York City's newly remodeled city hall, renamed Federal Hall. Twenty-six senators met in the large second-floor chamber. When the Residence Act of 1790 temporarily settled Congress in Philadelphia, the Senate met in Congress Hall, in an elegantly appointed second-floor chamber, from 1790 to 1800. Here the Senate conducted its first public session in 1795. The entire government moved to the District of Columbia in 1800.
