The Library of Congress has a blog post on the 225th anniversary of the Inaugural Inauguration of George Washington.
A fortnight earlier in Alexandria, a group of citizens ceremoniously bid farewell to their beloved son. Washington was departing for New York City for the inauguration. Colonel Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee penned the farewell address to Washington and Mayor Dennis Ramsay read it.
Reverend William McWhir recalled the event:
The large hotel was crowded to overflowing, and as great a multitude surrounded the doors and windows. During the delivery of Colonel’s Lee address, and especially during the reply of Washington, a breathless silence pervaded the multitude and in common language, “you might have heard a pin drop.”
Washington closed his reply with these words – “My kind friends and good neighbors, I bid you an affectionate farewell.” There was not a dry eye in the assembly. (Alexandria Gazette, January 3, 1853)
This event is immortalized with a marker at 201 North Fairfax Street.
Wise’s Tavern, 1788-1792. Here on April 16, 1789, George Washington was for the first time publicly addressed as President of the United States, the first and greatest of many distinguished successors in that high and honorable office. This tablet was erected in commemoration of this occurrance on April 16th 1932, in the Bicentennial Year of his birth by the Washington Society of America.
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