Tryon Palace: A British Palace in North Carolina

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At the time of William Tryon’s arrival from London, North Carolina had no established capital – the records of the colony were carried on a wagon from town to town where the Colonial Assembly met. Also North Carolina had no post road and the post roads in South Carolina and Virginia ended at the North Carolina borders.

William Tryon, an ambitious man with a very wealthy wife, viewed his sojourn in North Carolina as temporary. He hastened to establish a permanent seat of government and to resolve long-standing problems so that he could be posted to a more lucrative and impressive appointment as Governor of New York. When William Tryon arrived in North Carolina in October 1764, he brought with him an English architect named John Hawks. Tryon persuaded the Colonial Assembly to construct the Palace as the government house for North Carolina, settling the capital in New Bern which was centrally located on the North Carolina coast.

Designed as the seat for government for the colony, the Palace was also planned as the residence for the governor and his family. The Palace quickly became a controversial issue as construction began in 1767. Residents in the back country of North Carolina listed its cost as one of the grievances that sparked the rebellion of the “Regulators,” so called because of their attempt to address abuses of dishonest tax collectors in the backcountry. Governor Tryon, his wife Margaret Wake Tryon and their small daughter moved into the Palace in June 1770 while it was still under construction. A grand illumination and dancing assembly was held in December 1770 to celebrate its completion. Governor Tryon left with the militia to put down the regulator rebellion in the backcountry in March 1771, returning victoriously in June only to find orders to leave North Carolina to take up his new post as Governor of New York. In all, the Tryon’s occupied the Palace barely a year. Royal Governor Josiah Martin presided from the Palace until the early days of Revolution when he fled New Bern for Fort Johnston.

The grand structure, built as testimony to the might and power of Britain and the source of so much ire in pre-Revolutionary days, became the capitol of the new state of North Carolina. The Palace was the site of the oaths of office taken by the first state governor Richard Caswell and the members of the first Council of State in January 1777, followed by the convening of the first session of the North Carolina General Assembly in the Palace the following April. President George Washington visited the Palace in 1791 as part of his southern tour declaring it “a good brick building now hastening to ruins.” As the population of the growing state pushed westward, the capital followed suit, and Raleigh became the capital in 1794. The Palace in New Bern, gradually falling into disrepair, was rented as meeting space for the Masonic Lodge and as classrooms for the New Bern Academy. The structure was mostly destroyed by fire in 1798.

Memories of its elegance survived into the 20th century. One 18th century visitor had described it as the “most beautiful public building in North America,” a description that resonated in the poor and backward state of North Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th century. Dubbed the “valley of humility between two mountains of conceit” and the “Rip van Winkle State,” North Carolina began to take pride in its history. A statewide movement began in the 1920’s to reconstruct and restore the Palace. Prominent cultural leaders across the state, primarily women who played significant roles in the State DAR and State Garden Club, planned and coordinated the movement. In 1944, Maude Moore Latham of Greensboro announced that she would make funds available at her death to restore the Palace if the state would agree to obtain the property and operate the completed Palace as a state historic attraction. The bargain was struck in the spring of 1945 when a bill to establish the Tryon Palace Commission was passed in the North Carolina General Assembly. Accomplishing the reconstruction and restoration required the state to relocate Highway 70 that went over the base of the original site, relocate the Trent River Bridge at the end of the site and acquire more than 50 parcels of private property to reassemble Palace Square. The gates to the Palace were opened in 1959, welcoming North Carolinians to a celebration of our state’s important and unique place in America’s history.

Today Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens offers a wide variety of encounters with history to nearly 100,000 visitors who participate each year. More than twenty historical buildings and 14 acres of period gardens provide the setting for living history programs including the opportunity to visit with character interpreters representing people of the past, view crafts and domestic skill demonstrations, listen to period music or perhaps learn an early dance, play colonial games, and engage in the stories of past North Carolinians. And the restoration process continues as the collection of historic objects grows and new historical discoveries are made. In 1991, eyewitness accounts from the 18th century Venezuelan traveler Francisco de Miranda were uncovered in Venezuela’s National Archives, unveiling details about the North Carolina Palace previously unknown. Period rooms in the Palace have been recently updated to reflect these discoveries.

Other historic buildings open to the public include the 1779 John Wright Stanly House, built by a patriot who engaged in privateering to advance the American Revolution and the birthplace of Civil War General Lewis A. Armistead, a great grandson of John Wright Stanly; the ca, 1816 Robert Hay House interpreted as a living history house with members of the Hay family and neighbors sharing town gossip with interested visitors; and the ca. 1830 George W. Dixon House, lived in by an early mayor of New Bern who fell on hard times. Exhibits in the 1809 New Bern Academy presents life in New Bern over 300 years, including life during the occupation by federal troops from 1862 to 1865. Period gardens invite visitors to explore garden paths and shaded nooks, learning about late 18th century and 19th century garden design in the process.

The two-day Governor’s Pass includes the Palace, all Gardens and other historic house museums, and the New Bern Academy, and costs $15 for adults.

Coming Soon!
A 60,000 square foot History Education Center, currently under construction, will open in the summer of 2010 to coincide with the 300th anniversary of New Bern’s founding in 1710. The Center will feature exciting interactive exhibits designed to expand understanding of the past by exploring the cultural, economic, and natural history of the region. Located on the Trent River, the History Education Center will provide a unique introduction to the historic sites and landscapes of Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens.