Tryon Palace

Original Capitol

Tryon Palace was the original capitol of the colony and newly independent state of North Carolina. It was built soon after the arrival of the Royal Governor William Tryon between the year 1767 and 1770. Governor Tryon brought along the famed English architect John Hawks to design this magnificent mansion. It was designed in a Georgian style earmarked by it symmetry throughout.

Contract for the capitol was signed January 9, 1767, by "His Excellency, William Tryon, Esquire, Captain General Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the province of North Carolina, of the one part, and John Hawks, of New Bern, architect, of the other part." It was created with many unique statures about it. It sported window patterns unique to its time with the second floor home to Venetian style windowing and the outer buildings connected by colonnades. The building was finally ready for living in June of 1770. The records of the secretary of colony were moved and centralized there from Wilmington along with the assembly records making it the first legal capitol of North Carolina in 1771.

It was also vacated by the Tryon family in 1771 when they moved to New York for new governorship. The second of the royal governors, Josiah Martin, fled due to the conflicts of the Revolutionary war. It was turned over to the Revolutionary Army and used for multiple events there after and kept as the capitol until 1794 when the capital changed to Raleigh due to its more central location in the state.

During the time between the end of the war and time of moving it was a focal point of my things. The least of these were legislative sessions to the large amount of military pressure imposed by British troops on it. It was used as a dancing school, boarding house, Masonic lodge, fencing school, and in 1795 the New Bern Academy (which was North Carolina’s first state appropriated school). It caught fire in February of 1798 and mostly burned to the ground except the kitchen and stable offices.

The kitchen was demolished leaving solely the stable offices and George Street was extended. They