That building was renamed Federal Hall in 1789, after New York became the first official capital of the United States after the Constitution was ratified.

McComb, whose father had worked on the old City Hall, was a New Yorker and designed Castle Clinton in Battery Park, among other buildings and structures.

McComb alone supervised every aspect of construction and was in charge of the architectural modifications and detailing during the extended building process.

Municipal police fought with Metropolitan officers who were attempting to arrest New York City Mayor Fernando Wood.

Askew and Davis had entered the building together without passing through a metal detector, a courtesy extended to elected officials and their guests.

The construction included structural enhancements, upgrades to building services, as well as in-depth restoration of much of the interior and exterior.

These include Leopold Eidlitz in 1860, John H. Duncan in 1898, William Martin Aiken in 1903, Grosvenor Atterbury from 1907 to 1917, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon in 1956, and Cabrera Barricklo in 1998.

The entrance, reached by a long flight of steps, has figured prominently in civic events for over a century and a half.

[18]: 30  It was completely reclad in Alabama limestone above a Missouri granite base in 1954–56 by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, architects of the Empire State Building.

On the inside, the rotunda is a soaring space with a grand marble stairway rising up to the second floor, where ten fluted Corinthian columns support the coffered dome, which was added in a 1912 restoration by Grosvenor Atterbury.

Ulysses S. Grant also lay in state beneath the soaring rotunda dome – as did Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, first Union officer killed in the Civil War and commander of the 11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (First Fire Zouaves).

[19] Among the collection is John Trumbull's 1805 portrait of Alexander Hamilton, the source of the face on the United States ten-dollar bill.

Official receptions are held in the Governor's Room, which has hosted many dignitaries including the Marquis de Lafayette and Albert Einstein.

The Governor's Room, which is used for official receptions, also houses one of the most important collections of 19th-century American portraiture and notable artifacts such as George Washington's desk.

Most of the neighborhood consists of government offices (city, state, and federal), as well as an increasing number of upscale residential dwellings being converted from older commercial structures.

Opened on October 27, 1904,[22] this station beneath the public area in front of City Hall was designed to be the showpiece of the new subway.