Tryon Palace

In the 1760s the colony of North Carolina had no permanent capital, and Governor William Tryon set out to change that, commissioning an English architect to design a mansion that would house both the government and the governor. Finished in 1770 in New Bern, the brick Georgian building with its sweeping colonnaded wings was grand beyond anything in the colony, so grand that the taxes levied to pay for it helped stir the frontier unrest known as the Regulator movement.

The palace served as the colonial capitol and, briefly, the first state capitol after independence. It was here that the North Carolina assembly met and that the last royal governor, Josiah Martin, fled in 1775 as the Revolution came on. Over the following decades the capital moved inland and the building declined, and in 1798 fire destroyed the main structure, leaving only a surviving wing.

For a century and a half the palace was largely a memory, its site built over by the growing town. Then, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, a determined restoration effort acquired the land, cleared later buildings, and set about rebuilding the mansion. Crucially, the original architect's plans had survived, so the reconstruction, completed and opened in 1959, could follow the true design rather than guesswork.

The rebuilt palace is furnished with period antiques to reflect the taste of a wealthy colonial household, from the grand entrance hall and council chamber to the private family rooms and the kitchens and service quarters. It is a reconstruction, but a scholarly and faithful one, giving visitors a rare, room-by-room sense of colonial government and grand living on the eve of the Revolution.

Surrounding the palace are formal gardens laid out in the eighteenth-century English style, with geometric parterres, clipped hedges, allees of trees, and seasonal plantings that change through the year, some of the most admired historic gardens in the South. Costumed interpreters tend the grounds and demonstrate the crafts and daily work of the period.

The complex is more than the palace alone. It includes several restored historic houses in the surrounding district, gardens, and the North Carolina History Center on the riverfront, with galleries and interactive exhibits on the state's past. Together they tell the story not only of the governor's household but of the enslaved people and working families whose labor sustained it, a fuller picture of colonial life.

The palace sits in New Bern, founded by Swiss and German settlers in 1710 and one of the oldest towns in North Carolina, set where two rivers join near the coast. Its walkable historic district is full of colonial and antebellum homes, old churches, and a lively waterfront, and it is famous as the birthplace of the soft drink Pepsi-Cola, invented by a local pharmacist. This region was long home to the Tuscarora and Neusiok peoples before European settlement.

Spring is glorious here, when the palace gardens bloom, and fall brings mild, clear weather to the coastal plain. Summer is warm and humid, and the winter holidays are a special time, when the palace and town are decorated in period style. New Bern also makes a natural gateway to the beaches and fishing villages of the Crystal Coast to the southeast.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.