Tryon Palace

Alleged portrait of William Tryon, the first governor to reside at the palace, moved into the newly completed residence in 1770. There are no known authentic portraits of the eighth British governor.

William Tryon was a British officer and colonial official who served as the Governor of North-Carolina from 1765 to 1771. Tryon had seen the need for a centrally-located Government House while lieutenant governor. After assuming office Governor Tryon worked with architect John Hawks to draw up plans for a government house similar to other British colonial structures of the time.[2] In December 1766, the North Carolina legislature authorized £5,000 for the building of an "Edifice".[2]

Tryon told the legislature that the sum was not substantial enough for the plans he and Hawk had created; building it "in the plainest manner" would cost no less than £10,000 without including the outbuildings he envisioned.[2] Hawks agreed to supervise the construction for three years and went to Philadelphia at Tryon's behest to hire workers; Tryon said native North Carolina workers would not know how to construct such a building.[2] Tryon was able to convince the legislature to increase taxes for the house.[2]

In 1770 Tryon and his wife, Margaret Wake, moved into the Palace; at the time, "palace" was a standard word for any public building of this type.[2] The house was "a monument of opulence and elegance extraordinary in the American colonies."[2]

The construction of the house exacted great controversy in the North Carolina backcountry where most viewed it as an unnecessary, extravagant display of England. Extra taxation to fund the project had been levied by the governor on the citizens of the province, who had already felt overburdened with taxation. It proved to be too much and served as a major catalyst in North Carolina's War of the Regulation; which culminated in the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771, and later led to the hanging of seven men. The unpopular Tryon left North Carolina on June 30, 1771, to become Governor of New York on July 8 of that year. He had only lived in the house a little more than a year. Oddly, Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan has also retained its name even though William Tryon had served so very briefly as the last governor of New York province.

In May 1775, when the American Revolutionary War began, Governor Josiah Martin fled the mansion. Rebels seized the Palace and retained it as their seat of government. The new state's first general assemblies were held there and many of the furnishings were auctioned off to fund its administration. North Carolina was admitted to the newly formed United States in 1789. Three years later, the North Carolina State House was built in Raleigh as the state capitol. Four state governors lived in the palace – Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin, and U.S. Founding Father Richard Dobbs Spaight.

The Palace was subsequently used for several different purposes, including a school, a boarding house, and a Masonic lodge. A cellar fire started in 1798, consuming the Palace proper. Only the Kitchen and Stable Offices were saved. However, the Kitchen Office was razed at the beginning of the 19th century. Of the original buildings, only the Stable Office still stands.

Governor's library

In the 1930s, a movement began to preserve Colonial New Bern. The movement was bolstered by the discovery of the original Palace plans. Mrs. James Edwin Latham, a New Bern native, asked the state to assist the restoration efforts in 1944 and opened a trust fund committed purely to restoring the Palace. The General Assembly organized the Tryon Palace Commission in 1945. This Commission consisted of 25 people appointed by the governor, with the task of rebuilding the Palace using the original plans. The state agreed to be responsible for the Palace once it opened to the public.

Mrs. Latham did not live to see the rebuilding of the Palace. After her death in 1951, her daughter Mae Gordon Kellenberger oversaw the efforts. The first obstacles to overcome were moving as many as 50 or more buildings, rerouting U.S. Highway 70, and building a new bridge over the Trent River. These structures covered the foundations of the original building. Archaeological work also had to be done before construction could begin. Once it did, craftspeople from all over the United States were recruited. There were also visits to the United Kingdom to procure period-accurate furniture. Finally, the public was able to visit it for the first time in 1959.[1]

Visitors enter the Pepsi Family Center via a virtual time machine that takes them to the year 1835 in Craven County. Here, historic roles can be adopted that allow for a number of hands-on activities. The Center provides an intergenerational, interactive learning adventure for parents and children working as teams: sailing a ship, distilling turpentine and producing naval stores, piecing an electronic quilt, and helping the shopkeeper find merchandise for customers in the dry goods store.

The Regional History Museum has been transformed from a conventional artifact-based museum to one that incorporates layered contextual graphics, multimedia and visitor interactivity. It takes the visitor on an exploration of the interrelationships of the central coastal area of North Carolina with the world, teaching how local events influenced, or were influenced by, state, national and international events.

The North Carolina History Center is housed in a 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) building on a six-acre site on the Trent River adjacent to the Governor's Palace (west side) and downtown New Bern (east side). The site is a former industrial or Brownfield land site. It was classified as a Superfund property and a major contaminant of the Neuse River basin. Administration of remediation was handled under the North Carolina Superfund, part of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

This is a green-designed project including the construction of wetlands that filter storm-water run-off from a 50-acre area of the New Bern Historic District. The run-off is captured in a large underground cistern that recycles the water for irrigation and replenishment of the wetlands. The parking area also has a permeable surface allowing for absorption of run-off. The building is constructed of recycled materials. A commissioning agent has insured the operational efficiency of all mechanical and electrical equipment. And, the North Carolina History Center is planned for LEED certification at the silver level (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design).

The landscape features outdoor exhibits to encourage visitors to explore the natural history of the central coast as well as the story of naturalist and explorer John Lawson, who lived in eastern North Carolina in 1710. Knowledge of the settlers’ 18th-century land use educates visitors about environmental best practices in the 21st century.