History and Mission

History

Tryon Palace was colonial North Carolina’s first permanent capitol building. Shortly after Governor William Tryon was commissioned as the Royal Governor of North Carolina in 1765, he determined that a centrally located capital was needed. He picked New Bern because of its location between Charleston and Williamsburg, as well as its advantageous port which would be vital to the colony’s growth and success.

Construction of the Palace took place between 1767 and 1771 under the direction of architect John Hawks, whom Governor Tryon brought from Britain to design and oversee the construction. The everyday construction was completed by a mixture of skilled artisans and enslaved Black workers.

 The new Government House was the finest building in the North Carolina Colony. Designed in the popular Georgian style, the structure featured symmetry throughout and rivaled the most fashionable country homes in England. The first floor was intended for entertainment and governmental functions, while the second floor provided comfortable living quarters for the Governor’s family and his guests.  The Palace officially opened in December 1770 with a grand gala that included fireworks and abundant celebrations.

Governor Tryon resided at the Palace for only about 1 year before he was promoted to Royal Governor of New York.  Josiah Martin replaced him as the new Royal Governor of North Carolina in August of 1771. Governor Martin’s time in New Bern and at Tryon Palace was brief, as growing tensions from the Revolutionary War forced the Martin family to flee New Bern in 1775.

Patriots later made the Palace their capitol and the first sessions of the General Assembly met there to begin designing a free and independent state. Four state governors used the Palace: Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin and Richard Dobbs Spaight.

On the evening of April 21, 1791, the Palace was the scene of a dinner and dancing assembly held in honor of President George Washington, who was exploring New Bern while on his Southern Tour.  The North Carolina State capital moved from New Bern to Raleigh in 1794.  The Palace was rented for various purposes for the town, including a Masonic lodge, dancing lesson and meetings.

In February of 1798, a fire started in the cellar where hay was being stored. The fire quickly devastated the main building, which collapsed, but the Kitchen and Stable Offices were saved.

The Kitchen Office was demolished in the early 19th century; only the Stable Office remained. In the 19th century, George Street was extended over the original Palace foundation and dozens of houses and businesses were built on either side. At the end of the street, a bridge crossed the Trent River.

In the 1930s a movement began to restore North Carolina’s first capitol. The movement gained strength when volunteers tracked down John Hawks’ original architectural plans. In 1944, Mrs. James Edwin Latham, a Greensboro resident and native of New Bern, challenged the State of North Carolina to join her in restoring the Palace. She guaranteed her commitment through establishment of a trust fund dedicated solely to the Palace restoration. In 1945, the legislature created the Tryon Palace Commission, a body of 25 persons appointed by the governor, and charged it with the reconstruction of the original Palace from its original plans on its original foundation. As part of its commitment, the state further agreed to maintain and operate the restoration when it opened to the public.

Mrs. Latham died in 1951, shortly before the reconstruction of the Palace began. Her daughter, Mrs. Mae Gordon Kellenberger, took on leadership of the restoration. The first restoration challenge was to clear the site. This involved removing more than 50 buildings and rerouting North Carolina Route 70, including a bridge over the Trent River. Archaeological digs followed. They soon uncovered the original Palace foundation, directly under the site that the highway had occupied. Layers of stucco were removed from the Stable Office, the only remaining part of the 1770 complex.

The reconstruction of the Palace on the original foundation and then the painstaking job of reconstructing the Palace began. Craftspeople from across the country and abroad were brought in to do the work. In the meantime, trips to England yielded furnishings appropriate to the period of the original Palace. Earnings from Mrs. Latham’s trust underwrote all of these time-consuming and costly tasks. The Palace was opened to the public in April 1959, as North Carolina’s first great public history project. The furnishings at the Palace are primarily English. Governor Tryon made a very detailed inventory of his possessions following the destruction by fire of his later home at Fort George, New York. This inventory, which revealed the Tryon’s taste in furnishings, was used as a guide in refurbishing the reconstructed Palace

Mission

The Mission of the Tryon Palace Foundation is to support the Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens by protecting, preserving and developing the legacy of its historical past. We accomplish this through education of children and visitors from around the globe, by being good stewards of what has been entrusted to us and by ensuring its future for present and future generations.