Bern there, done that

We are en route to a remote section of Cape Lookout National Seashore after which we will return to the cell-service desert of Moores Creek NB after which we will be on the road.

Thus, while I have a good connection I thought I'd get in a quick post to wrap up MCNB (where we completed our volunteer duties last Saturday) with a closer look at some of its monuments and to document our one-night stop in New Bern.

This is probably the guy most responsible for the battlefield being a national park. The monument was erected in 1910 and he died in 1912.

These inspiring words appear on one side of the "Women's Monument" which was placed at MCNB in 1907.

On the opposite side of the monument this story is told. However, historians later found out the story is not true. Oh well.

Now, about New Bern, the first capital of the state (but not the colony) of North Carolina. New Bern sits at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse Rivers, close (but not too close) to the coast where it could receive ocean-going ships while also having some protection from the stormy Atlantic. Founded in 1710 it is North Carolina's second-oldest city and became the colony's capital after the Crown-appointed governor William Tryon built a palatial home and moved the seat of government there in 1770. The house was so big and elaborate for the time, designed by an architect from England, that taxes had to be increased to pay for it. Needless to say that caused quite a bit of controversy and Tryon decamped for New York after only one year. His successor made it four years before being run out of the state by the Patriots of the American Revolution in 1775. Four state governors lived in the palace before the capital was moved to Raleigh in 1792. The palace burned to the ground in 1798.

Like all of the eastern coastal communities that were prominent in colonial days, New Bern began to fade in the 19th century. Eventually, in the early 20th century a highway was built right over the top of the site where the palace had once stood.

And then along came Maude Latham. She was the wife of a wealthy cotton planter and trader but she also shrewdly invested monetary gifts from her husband to create a considerable personal fortune of her own in the 1930s and 40s. The couple lived in Greensboro where Mrs. Latham took an interest in city planning and historic preservation. However, she never forgot her roots in New Bern where she grew up and when the original architectural plans for the Tryon Palace were discovered Maude Latham set out to rebuild the structure based on those original drawings, and she convinced the governor to back the idea.

However, before the complex and expensive process of the state re-routing the highway and re-acquiring the property where the palace once stood was complete Maude Latham died in 1951. All was not lost however because she left more than $1 million in a trust fund managed by her daughter that was dedicated to bringing the project to completion and the reconstructed Tryon Palace opened to the public in 1959 and has been operated as a state historic site ever since.

The "new" Tryon Palace.

Betsy has now been to every North Carolina stop Washington made on the southbound leg of his 1791 Southern Tour. Despite what this historic marker says it is not known for sure if Washington stayed in the Stanly home. However, historians are quite certain that President Washington attended a party in his honor at the Tryon Palace where he danced with as many as 20 different women (Martha did not make the trip).

This is the room in the re-built Tryon Palace where the dance was held. Looks like Betsy is hoping to be dance partner #21.

Check out these cantilevered "air stairs" in the Tryon Palace, built without any supports other than the weight of the other stair "box".