Welcome back, folks! As many of you know by now, JASP 2025: Sensibility and Domesticity, will take place June 19-22, 2025, in historic New Bern, North Carolina. This year, we will be focusing on Austen's first published novel, Sense and Sensibility—considering the birth of her career as a published writer and taking a transatlantic look at the world into which she was born. Our program will explore medicine, birth, and domestic arts in Regency England and colonial North Carolina and celebrate the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth in 1775. We can’t wait to see you there!
In the meantime, enjoy this exclusive guide to Tryon Palace, where JASP will be hosting this year’s symposium.
Initially constructed in the late eighteenth century, between 1767 and 1770, Tryon Palace once served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina (back when it was still a colony!) and the home of the Royal Governor’s family. When Governor William Tryon first came to North Carolina in 1764, he brought with him the English architect John Hawks, who modeled the Georgian palace after several fashionable country houses around London. Governor Tryon, along with his wife and daughter, lived in Tryon Palace a little over a year before leaving New Bern in June of 1771, when William was appointed to the governorship of New York.
The second Royal Governor of North Carolina to live in Tryon Palace was Josiah Martin. He fled at the beginning of the American Revolution in May of 1775. Later, Martin’s furnishings were auctioned off by the new state government and Tryon Palace became the Patriot’s capitol. In 1791, Tryon Palace hosted a dinner and dancing assembly in honor of America’s first president, George Washington, who was exploring New Bern on his Southern Tour.
"It was soon regarded to be one of the finest public buildings in the American colonies." – Tryon Palace History
When Raleigh became North Carolina’s state capital in 1794, the Palace became available for rent and adopted many functions, housing a Masonic lodge, boardinghouse, and private school all within a few years. Unfortunately, in February of 1798, a cellar fire destroyed the main building, leaving only the Kitchen and Stable Offices intact. In the early nineteenth century, the Kitchen Office was also demolished.
In the 1930s, a movement advocated to restore North Carolina’s first capitol. Volunteers tracked down John Hawks’s original architectural plans, and in 1944, Mrs. James Latham, a Greensboro resident and New Bern native, challenged the State of North Carolina to join her in restoring the Palace. She established a trust fund dedicated solely to Tryon Palace’s restoration, and in 1945, the state legislature created the Tryon Palace Commission, which was charged with the reconstruction of the original Palace, on its original foundation, using Hawks’s original blueprints. The state also agreed to maintain and operate the restored building when it opened to the public.
Sadly, Mrs. Latham died in 1951 before reconstruction began on Tryon Palace. Luckily, her daughter stepped in to spearhead the restoration. The first challenge was clearing the site for restoration: the Commission had to remove over fifty buildings, reroute North Carolina Route 70, and redirect a bridge over the Trent River. The archaeological digs that followed revealed the original Palace foundation, directly under the former site of the highway. When it was time to begin reconstruction, American and overseas craftspeople were employed to conduct the work. Trips to England yielded period-appropriate furnishings, funded by the earnings from Mrs. Latham’s trust. Governor Tryon’s recovered inventory of possessions, completed following a house fire at his later home in Fort George, New York, was used as a guide to the refurbished Palace’s interior decor.
Tryon Palace officially opened to the public in April of 1959 as “North Carolina’s first great public history project.” Today, guides in period dress routinely conduct tours of the building. Both floors are open, as well as the cellar, which was recently remodeled according to the descriptions contained in architect John Hawks’s letters. You can also visit the first-floor Kitchen, boasting the very latest “modern” conveniences of 1770, as well as the Stable Office, which possesses its own unique history of occupants and renovations. And you certainly won’t want to miss the beautiful Tryon Palace gardens!
Join us again in the coming weeks for more information on the history and attractions of New Bern, NC, where we’ll be hosting JASP 2025. The Jane Austen Summer Program is designed to appeal to anyone with a passion for all things Jane Austen. Attendees include people from all walks of life, as well as established scholars, high school teachers, and students from middle school through graduate school. Register for JASP 2025 today!
JASP 2025 is partially supported by a grant from North Carolina Humanities.
Information sourced and excerpted from TryonPalace.org.
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