Tryon Palace
Encyclopedia
Tryon Palace is a modern reconstruction of the historical colonial royal governor
s' palace of the Province of North Carolina
. It was constructed in the 1950s across the original mansion site located in the city of New Bern, North Carolina
. Today it is a State Historic Site. The Palace gardens are also well-renowned.
While he had composed plans for an elaborate governor's mansion even before assuming the office of North Carolina's governor, after assuming office William Tryon
worked with architect
John Hawks during 1764 and 1765 to draw up plans for an elaborate home for himself. In December 1766, the North Carolina legislature authorized 5,000 pounds for the building of Tryon's mansion. 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 pounds without including the outbuildings he envisioned. 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. Tryon was able to convince the legislature to increase taxes for the house. In 1770, Tryon moved into the Palace. The house was "a monument of opulence and elegance extraordinary in the American colonies."
The building of the house exacted great controversy. 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 the Province of New York
on July 8, 1771. He had only lived in the house a little more than a year.
In May 1775, when the American Revolution
began, Governor Josiah Martin
fled the mansion. Patriots seized the Palace and converted it into the State capitol building. The first general assemblies were held there and many of the furnishings were auctioned by the newly-formed state government. Four men lived in the Palace as governors of the new state - Richard Caswell
, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight. After Raleigh
was founded as the capitol in 1794, the Palace was used for many different purposes, including a school, 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.
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. 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 US 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 for the first time in April 1959.
Offices is actually the only original structure still standing. The Kitchen Offices is separate from the Palace, as was usual at the time. After the 1798 fire, the grounds were divided into lots and sold. In the early 1830s, a house (George W. Dixon House) was built for George W. Dixon, a wealthy merchant tailor, who was also a former mayor of New Bern. The Robert Hay House, built at the start of the 19th century, was purchased in 1816 by Robert Hay, a Scottish immigrant and wagon-maker. The John Wright Stanly House
is an outstanding example of Georgian architecture and served as home to several generations of a remarkable family. Members of the Stanly family took active roles on the stage of American history during the American Revolution, the early national period, and the Civil War. The New Bern Academy was the first school in North Carolina established by legal mandate, in 1766. Like the Palace, the original academy building was destroyed by fire, this one in 1795. The current structure was built between 1806 and 1809.
The new building contains two major museums — the Pepsi Family Center and the Regional History Museum, a museum store, two orientation rooms and a larger programming space usable as classrooms, a 200-seat state-of-the-art performing arts hall, a waterfront café, and program and administrative space.
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 Museum Store offers a myriad of choices: books on history, architecture and cooking; decorative pieces for the home and garden; collectables, porcelain and jewelry; as well as toys, games and books for young people.
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.
Our 16 acres (64,749.8 m²) of gardens offer three centuries of gardening history.
From the 18th-century Wilderness Garden with its native plants that greeted the first European settlers in this area, through the lush displays favored by the Victorians, to 20th-century colonial revival interpretations of earlier periods, our gardens offer almost endless variety.
The gardens at Tryon Palace are carefully maintained year-round, so regardless of when you visit, beauty abounds.
What were the Palace gardens really like?
We can only make intelligent guesses about what kind of gardens there might have been surrounding the 18th-century Palace. Governor Tryon seems to have had little interest in horticulture. Two maps of New Bern drawn in 1769, when the Palace was still under construction, reveal two different garden plans.
More than two centuries later, in 1991, Palace researchers discovered yet another plan. In the collections of the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Venezuela they found a garden plan that came from Palace architect, John Hawks. Hawks gave the plan to Venezuelan traveler Francisco de Miranda, who admired the Palace greatly when he visited New Bern in 1783. The Miranda plan suggests a strong French influence instead of the more-to-be-expected English garden style.
Most likely Claude Sauthier drew up the plan given to Miranda. Sauthier was born in France in 1736, and trained as a draftsman. In 1763 he wrote a Treatis on Public Architecture and Garden Planning that reflects a strong influence of two 18th-century French master gardeners, one of whom trained with the designer of Versailles.
Sauthier came to America before the Revolution to work as a mapmaker. In 1768, Governor Tryon employed him to draw a series of North Carolina town maps, including one of New Bern. Similarities of style between the town maps and the garden plan discovered in Venezuela suggest that Sauthier created them all.
None of the historic garden plans has ever been implemented at the Palace. The current gardens were designed by Morley Williams at the time of the Palace Restoration. Before undertaking the Palace project, Williams had served on the faculties of Harvard and North Carolina State Universities and assisted in the restoration of the gardens at Mount Vernon and Stratford Hall. His designs are in the colonial revival style that was widely employed in the mid-20th century.
And with the opening of the North Carolina History Center in 2010, the gardens now include a garden filled with a diversity of plants which are native to the river edges of coastal North Carolina. These plants survive both being flooded and dry soil, and provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife
Royal governor
Royal governor is an informal term used to refer to a colonial or provincial Governor, or by extension a Governor-General or similar gubernatorial official, appointed by a king or other monarch....
s' palace of the Province of North Carolina
Province of North Carolina
The Province of North Carolina was originally part of the Province of Carolina in British America, which was chartered by eight Lords Proprietor. The province later became the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee....
. It was constructed in the 1950s across the original mansion site located in the city of New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern, North Carolina
New Bern is a city in Craven County, North Carolina with a population of 29,524 as of the 2010 census.. It is located at the confluence of the Trent and the Neuse rivers...
. Today it is a State Historic Site. The Palace gardens are also well-renowned.
Early history
William Tryon
William Tryon was a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as governor of the Province of North Carolina and the Province of New York .-Early life and career:...
worked with architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
John Hawks during 1764 and 1765 to draw up plans for an elaborate home for himself. In December 1766, the North Carolina legislature authorized 5,000 pounds for the building of Tryon's mansion. 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 pounds without including the outbuildings he envisioned. 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. Tryon was able to convince the legislature to increase taxes for the house. In 1770, Tryon moved into the Palace. The house was "a monument of opulence and elegance extraordinary in the American colonies."
The building of the house exacted great controversy. 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
War of the Regulation
The War of the Regulation was a North Carolina uprising, lasting from approximately 1760 to 1771, in which citizens took up arms against corrupt colonial officials...
which culminated in the Battle of Alamance
Battle of Alamance
The Battle of Alamance was the final battle of the War of the Regulation, a rebellion in colonial North Carolina over issues of taxation and local control. In the past, historians considered the battle to be the opening salvo of the American Revolution and locals agreed with this assessment...
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 the Province of New York
Province of New York
The Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...
on July 8, 1771. He had only lived in the house a little more than a year.
In May 1775, when the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
began, Governor Josiah Martin
Josiah Martin
Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Martin was the last colonial governor of the Province of North Carolina .-Family and connections:...
fled the mansion. Patriots seized the Palace and converted it into the State capitol building. The first general assemblies were held there and many of the furnishings were auctioned by the newly-formed state government. Four men lived in the Palace as governors of the new state - Richard Caswell
Richard Caswell
Richard Caswell was the first and fifth governor of the U.S. State of North Carolina, serving from 1776 to 1780 and from 1784 to 1787....
, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight. After Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
was founded as the capitol in 1794, the Palace was used for many different purposes, including a school, 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.
Restoration and today
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 AssemblyNorth Carolina General Assembly
The North Carolina General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The General Assembly drafts and legislates the state laws of North Carolina, also known as the General Statutes...
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. 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 US 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 for the first time in April 1959.
Palace structures
The Tryon Palace Historic Site includes several structures besides the main building. The StableStable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
Offices is actually the only original structure still standing. The Kitchen Offices is separate from the Palace, as was usual at the time. After the 1798 fire, the grounds were divided into lots and sold. In the early 1830s, a house (George W. Dixon House) was built for George W. Dixon, a wealthy merchant tailor, who was also a former mayor of New Bern. The Robert Hay House, built at the start of the 19th century, was purchased in 1816 by Robert Hay, a Scottish immigrant and wagon-maker. The John Wright Stanly House
John Wright Stanly House
The John Wright Stanly House is a historic home in New Bern, North Carolina, United States. John Wright Stanly was a prominent New Bern citizen. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places on February 26, 1970.-References:...
is an outstanding example of Georgian architecture and served as home to several generations of a remarkable family. Members of the Stanly family took active roles on the stage of American history during the American Revolution, the early national period, and the Civil War. The New Bern Academy was the first school in North Carolina established by legal mandate, in 1766. Like the Palace, the original academy building was destroyed by fire, this one in 1795. The current structure was built between 1806 and 1809.
North Carolina History Center
In October 2010, Tryon Palace opened the The North Carolina History Center, a 60000 square feet (5,574.2 m²) facility on six acres that revolutionizes the visitor experience at the state’s premier historic site and sets a new standard for the museum experience. The innovative use of interactive technology and living history programs is designed to attract families with children and young adults, an audience currently less responsive to traditional historic site and museum activities. Additionally, the Center is programmed to build repeat visitation, with a constantly changing menu of experiences to offer visitors.The new building contains two major museums — the Pepsi Family Center and the Regional History Museum, a museum store, two orientation rooms and a larger programming space usable as classrooms, a 200-seat state-of-the-art performing arts hall, a waterfront café, and program and administrative space.
Two Interactive Museums
Visitors enter the Pepsi Family Center via a virtual time machine that takes them to the year 1835 in Craven County, North Carolina. 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 Museum Store offers a myriad of choices: books on history, architecture and cooking; decorative pieces for the home and garden; collectables, porcelain and jewelry; as well as toys, games and books for young people.
The Site
The North Carolina History Center is housed in a 60000 square feet (5,574.2 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 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.
Gardens
From the 18th-century Wilderness Garden with its native plants that greeted the first European settlers in this area, through the lush displays favored by the Victorians, to 20th-century colonial revival interpretations of earlier periods, our gardens offer almost endless variety.
The gardens at Tryon Palace are carefully maintained year-round, so regardless of when you visit, beauty abounds.
What were the Palace gardens really like?
We can only make intelligent guesses about what kind of gardens there might have been surrounding the 18th-century Palace. Governor Tryon seems to have had little interest in horticulture. Two maps of New Bern drawn in 1769, when the Palace was still under construction, reveal two different garden plans.
More than two centuries later, in 1991, Palace researchers discovered yet another plan. In the collections of the Academia Nacional de la Historia in Venezuela they found a garden plan that came from Palace architect, John Hawks. Hawks gave the plan to Venezuelan traveler Francisco de Miranda, who admired the Palace greatly when he visited New Bern in 1783. The Miranda plan suggests a strong French influence instead of the more-to-be-expected English garden style.
Most likely Claude Sauthier drew up the plan given to Miranda. Sauthier was born in France in 1736, and trained as a draftsman. In 1763 he wrote a Treatis on Public Architecture and Garden Planning that reflects a strong influence of two 18th-century French master gardeners, one of whom trained with the designer of Versailles.
Sauthier came to America before the Revolution to work as a mapmaker. In 1768, Governor Tryon employed him to draw a series of North Carolina town maps, including one of New Bern. Similarities of style between the town maps and the garden plan discovered in Venezuela suggest that Sauthier created them all.
None of the historic garden plans has ever been implemented at the Palace. The current gardens were designed by Morley Williams at the time of the Palace Restoration. Before undertaking the Palace project, Williams had served on the faculties of Harvard and North Carolina State Universities and assisted in the restoration of the gardens at Mount Vernon and Stratford Hall. His designs are in the colonial revival style that was widely employed in the mid-20th century.
And with the opening of the North Carolina History Center in 2010, the gardens now include a garden filled with a diversity of plants which are native to the river edges of coastal North Carolina. These plants survive both being flooded and dry soil, and provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife
External links
- Tryon Palace - official site
- The Palace
- Gardens
- Events
- Historic Homes