Etching of the palace front 



to tenants. The building had been home 

 to a fencing school, a dancing school 

 and a school for teaching French. 

 When the New Bern Academy burned, 

 it moved into the palace, where the 

 master lived in one of the rooms. 



Through years of neglect, roofs 

 leaked, paint peeled, and glass, marble 

 and metal were stolen. One man living 

 in New Bern at the time feared "the 

 carrying off of the house itself." The 

 state continuously tried to sell the 

 crumbling palace for cash, certificates, 

 even tobacco, but few could afford a 

 three-wing, brick and marble fixer- 

 upper. 



On Feb. 27, 1798, a servant set the 

 cellar hay ablaze with a candle, and 

 soon the central building was in flames. 

 The townspeople tore down the 

 colonnades to save the east and west 

 wings, but the main palace — just 28 

 years old — was completely destroyed. 



Researchers surmise that the east 

 wing, which housed the kitchen, was 

 torn down soon after and sold for 

 bricks. The west wing, home to stables 

 and the coach house, was the only 

 original building left standing. 



After the fire, the state sold the 

 bricks and auctioned off parcels of the 

 land. The neighborhood flourished, 

 homes and families moving in on top 

 of the foundations. George Street, the 

 avenue that now dead-ends into the 

 palace gates, was extended "right over 

 what is the front walk today," says 



Hilarie M. Hicks, curator of interpreta- 

 tion for Tryon Palace. The remaining 

 wing was used for a school and mission 

 church, and finally converted into 

 stucco-covered apartments. 



But like the stream of hostility that 

 flooded North Carolina when the 

 buildings were constructed, a trickle of 

 appreciation for the once-magnificent 

 palace began to seep through the 

 community. 



THROUGH YEARS OF NEGLECT, 

 ROOFS LEAKED, PAINT PEELED, 

 AND GLASS, MARBLE AND METAL 



WERE STOLEN. THE STATE 

 CONTINUOUSLY TRIED TO SELL 

 THE CRUMBLING PALACE FOR 

 CASH, CERTIFICATES, EVEN 

 TOBACCO, BUT FEW COULD 

 AFFORD A THREE-WING, BRICK 

 AND MARBLE FIXER-UPPER. 



"We have some interesting things 

 in our collection," says Hicks, "that 

 showed that the palace ... remained a 

 point of pride for the local people." 

 Dishes and other items featuring the 

 palace have made their way into the 

 Tryon Palace collections. 



By the 1 920s, the itch to rediscover 

 New Bern's colonial past had grown. 

 The townspeople started to celebrate 

 their architecture and historical events, 



particularly the palace. In 1922, the 

 North Carolina chapter of the Colonial 

 Dames of the American Revolution 

 placed a commemorative plaque on the 

 wall of the remaining wing. In 1929, a 

 local fund-raiser and pageant raised 

 $3,500 for "the reconstruction of the 

 Tryon Palace." 



Still, reconstruction plans were 

 literally nowhere near concrete. There 

 were more than 50 buildings on the 

 property, Highway 70 and the Trent 

 River bridge passed over the founda- 

 tions, and no diagrams or plans had 

 been found to show the dimensions of 

 the original building. Most importantly, 

 there just wasn't enough money. 



But in the 1930s, the locals were 

 given hope when President Franklin D. 

 Roosevelt established the Historic Site 

 and Monuments Act to preserve and 

 protect America's culture through the 

 Works Progress Administration. 



Gertrude Carraway, a journalist 

 and local historian who had published 

 articles to raise interest in New Bern's 

 colonial preservation, wrote to the U.S. 

 Department of the Interior and the 

 National Park Service in search of 

 support for the reconstruction. The 

 government said it would be considered 

 if and when the program actually had 

 funds for projects. 



Despite this gloomy federal 

 prediction, state officials saw the 

 reconstruction as important to North 

 Carolina and American history. They 

 also saw it as a wise business move — 

 eastern North Carolina needed some- 

 thing that would bring in the public and 

 raise morale and revenue. In 1937, 

 North Carolina's new governor, Clyde 

 Hoey, announced his support for the 

 project, declaring the reconstruction 

 one of the major goals of his term. 



So with the help of Fiske Kimball, 

 a colonial historian and director of the 

 Philadelphia Museum of Art, and 

 several other New Bern women, 

 Carraway fired up her campaign. The 

 first step was to find John Hawks' 

 original plans. 



These were located in the New 

 York Historical Society records in New 

 York City, where Hawks' great grand- 



10 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1996 



