Tryon Palace

Today Julia and I visited Tryon Palace. This home and government building was built for one of the last British governors of the then-colony of North Carolina. The building burnt to the ground in 1798 (except the stables building) and was not rebuilt until the 1950s, when a group of zealous Southern women turned their attentions to its restoration in its location. After they'd razed 45 homes, moved a highway, and moved a bridge across the Trent River, building began.

This was Teacher Appreciation Day, so I got in free (yippee!) and Julia was only $6. Nice deal!

Julia insisted on taking my picture as proof I was there.

A curved portico graces each side of the house.

King George III's coat of arms

The stables were converted into a rooming house in the 1900s.

No photos were allowed inside the house. Sorry.

The dovecote

Little birds in the garden gift shop. They're sitting on a glass shelf,
but the shelf didn't show up in the photo, so they're
suspended in midair.

horse trough

The gardens are extensive. Here are a few shots from one formal garden.

Pomegranates! 

The Dixon House, which we toured next ~

A crew is filming for the TV show Sleepy Hollow at various houses on the Tryon Palace grounds. I think this buggy is one prop.

Here are other props, trying to look very old, but packed in bubble wrap :)

After the Dixon House, which was full of period antiques from the 18th century, we toured the lower-class Hay House. This home is usually opened for school children and is furnished with only reproductions so that the kids can sit and touch and experience the house.

I'm standing in the backdoor, looking toward the front door -- yes, this house is one room deep!
This sloping back porch reminded me of my porches at the old house (1870) we owned in Edwards, many years ago. Some of the crazy wallpaper I saw today also reminded me of that house.

The one downstairs room for dining, gathering, reading, playing

the kitchen

The only original piece -- the kitchen fireplace insert

We returned to the palace to finish touring the gardens.

The kitchen vegetable garden

Pensive Julia

A rear view of the palace

Tryon Palace has started renting their grounds for weddings and events, a necessary concession to their budget cuts lately. This is the huge south lawn stretching to the river.

This lovely darkened walk is called the Pleached Allee. "Pleaching is a term for intertwining branches to form a hedge." (from their website)

If I were the bride, I think I'd have the ceremony in here!!

Past the wire, and the chain-link fence, and the asphalt road, and the other fence, is the river. Oh, to be the mistress of the palace, Mrs. Tryon (who, I was told, insisted on being addressed as Her Excellency!), a wealthy heiress at age nineteen, who could stroll across her south lawn to the river, unimpeded! Or ... maybe not. She lived in this home for only 13 months before her husband was transferred to New York.