President George Washington occupied it from February 23 to August 30, 1790, during New York City's two-year term as the national capital.

Macomb leased it to the French Minister Plenipotentiary, the Comte de Moustier, who occupied it until his return to Paris in early 1790.

From the rear of the main rooms glass doors opened onto a balcony giving an uninterrupted view of the Hudson River.

[2] The first Presidential Mansion was the Samuel Osgood House at 1 Cherry Street[3] in Manhattan, which Washington occupied from April 23, 1789, to February 23, 1790.

The Osgood House (demolished 1856) was in the most congested part of Manhattan, near the port along the East River, and Washington found it cramped for his presidential household.

Slavery was legal in New York, and Washington brought 7 enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to work in his presidential household: William Lee, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Paris, Austin, Moll, and Oney Judge.