Footloose in Fast Carolina
Two Women
Behind the restoration of Try-
on's Palaee Is the dream of two
IN'ew Bern natives.
Hy W II I. VIII) II F 1,1 F
Hml M« «(ngt el Hlo<t Wei n>
New Bern, N. C.— "223 George si.,'*
my little guidebook «id. That's where
I'd find the old brick tenement house
I wanted to sec.
A map in the book showed me that
George si. runs off Broad, which is the
name the main coastal highway takes
as it passes through town. Elsewhere
it is U S. 17.
George si., too, is an important road.
U.S. 70. It runs to a bridge over Trent
Riser, across which lies the road to
Morchcad City port and historic Beau¬
fort, 40 miles away near the open sea.
• • •
That is what the map showed. But
when I got a block or two down George
si. I came lo a heavy, high chain-link
fence stretched right across it. To get
to the bridge one has to detour 'round
the block.
On the other side of the fence there
was no Broad it., but an open area of
dug-up ground and broad clear spaces
on cither side where thcrc'd been de¬
molitions. In each of the cleared spaces
was a plain, two-story building of dark
red brick, one exactly like the other.
The one on the right as I was soon
to learn, was the building once num¬
bered 223.
I had come lo the Try on Palace, or
what there is left ol il. Its restoration
has been talked about for years, but I
hadn't realized that il was under way,
• • •
In a field office, in one of the old
buildings just outside the fence, my
interest got a quick boost.
"Who's doing it?" I asked the young
woman at the desk.
“Perry, Shaw, Hepburn . . she
began.
“Boston," I interrupted.
“Yes Boston." she agreed. “We're
expecting Mr. Perry tomorrow.”
Here was the «me distinguished
architectural firm that "did” the Wil¬
liamsburg restoration. I decided that
the Tryon Palace really must amount
to something, as it surely docs.
• • •
In its time, which was the latter
I700’s. extravagant things were said
of the great palace and government
center that Royal Governor William
Try on of North Carolina Province built
here on the bank of the Trent, at what
was then the edge of town.
“lhc most magnificent building in
America,” one estimate wa« but
though it never was quite that, il did
possess beauty, and certain architec¬
tural features then nos cl in the col¬
onics.
William Tryon, who had been
Lieutenant Governor and was slated
to succeed his ailing chief, arrived in
New Bern from England in 1764 with
a commission from George III in his
baggage, a young architect, John
Hawks, in his suite and in his mind a
definite plan to make this city the per¬
manent capital of the province.
That proposal was the first one that
he made to London on assuming the
Governorship early in '65.
But the Colonial Assembly would
have lo approve the plan and vole the
funds for the palace, and though there
was some opposition from men ol
Kdcnlon and Wilmington and other
places where the Assemblies had been
meeting, they finally bowed lo Tryon'»
wishes and voted £5,000 local money
for the building.
The amount was wholly insufficient,
but once work was under way they’d
have to vote more, as they did.
Hawks had his plans ready; the
Lords of Trade approved them, and
the first traces of brick for the main
buildings were laid in August, 1767.
There was to be a great central
palace with richly finished rooms for
meetings of the Council and of the
Assembly on the ground floor, and resi¬
dential quarters for the Governor
above. Detached wings were lo stand
off at each ode and well forward of
the main building, to which they
would be joined by quarter-circle
colonnades. A landscaped foregarden
would add to the beauty of the place,
and other broad gardened lands, con¬
taining some of the small service build¬
ings. were to extend to the riverbank.
• • •
Now all this was to cost a lot of
money, which the Assembly somehow
had to raise. So it voted a poll tax on
everybody, and a tax on wines and
distilled liquor.
Soon the people of the western
hinterland were in open revolt at what
they felt was a heavy burden for a
foolish waste. Tryon crushed the ruing
with the provincial militiamen, and the
building of the palace went on.
By June, 1770, the Governor and
his family were in the still uncompleted
building, but they enjoyed little of its
elegance and comforts, for in exactly
a year Tryon was made Royal Gov¬
ernor of New York, and at once passed
from the North Carolina story.
From this Tryon Palace — the
name always has held — the Governor's
successor fled lo safety before the ris¬
ing tide of the Revolution. In it. patriot
provincial Congresses met. and later
slate Governors resided.
In il George Washington dined and
danced in -91.
In another three years the state capi¬
tal was shifted to Raleigh, and in 1798
the neglected palace was destroyed by
fire.
Only one wing remained, which had
housed the stables and coachroom — a
21
THI STATE. OC'Olia 22. I9SS
