Arthur sent out immediately to find a judge to administer his oath of office.

The next morning, Arthur went down to Washington and took the oath of office all over again, just to be sure it was official. Chester Alan Arthur was the only President of the United States, besides George Washington, to be inaugurated in New York City.

His home still stands, unrestored and privately owned. It is now a tenement house with a Middle Eastern delicatessen occupying the ground floor.

There’s a reason why his home, like Arthur himself, has been forgotten. Arthur had been nominated as Vice President in the first place because he had a long and successful history as a hack politician who collected lots of graft for the Republican Party. But when he was called to Washington as President, he discovered there an army of incompetent and corrupt office holders, all politically appointed. He committed the unpardonable sin of agitating effectively for a Federal civil service. Congress enacted it into law in 1883.

The Republicans never forgave him for depriving them of thousands of appointive jobs; the Democrats likewise. They threw him out and tried to forget him like a bad dream. Arthur was the only incumbent President to be denied renomination by his own party, a record that stands to this day.