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John Adams, United States' second president, directs his cabinet on May 15, 1800, to relocate from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. and to have all federal offices in operation in the new capital city no later than June 15. The order was issued right after Congress adjourned its last meeting in Philadelphia.
At the time, the entire federal government consisted of about 125 employees. Philadelphia officially ceased to serve as the nation’s capital as of June 11. 1800. The nation’s new capital, Washington D.C., was still under construction, following French architect, Pierre Charles L’Enfant's grand city plan; so Adams and his wife, Abigail, took up temporary residence at Union Tavern in Georgetown. On Nov. 17, Congress convened for the first time at the U.S. Capitol, which had been designed by British-American neoclassical architect, Benjamin Latrobe.
