2. The U.S. Senate, 235 Second Avenue
New York City was the nation’s first capital after the Constitution was ratified in 1788. The U.S. Senate first convened on March 4, 1789, in Federal Hall on Wall Street. Congress moved to Philadelphia in 1790, then to Washington D.C. in 1800. Why does a building more than two miles north of Federal Hall have The U.S. Senate engraved above its entrance?
A clue can be found above the entrance of the adjoining building at 231 Second Avenue. William Maxwell Evarts served as Attorney General, Secretary of State, and as U.S. Senator of New York from 1885 to 1891. Evarts’ townhouse stood on the site of the two buildings in the last half of the 19th century. Evarts died here in 1901. When the new buildings were erected on the site in 1910, Evarts’ career was recognized with the engravings on the ghost signs.