Tryon Palace was originally built between 1767 and 1770, as the first permanent capitol of the Colony of North Carolina and a home for the Royal Governor and his family. Governor William Tryon had brought John Hawks, an English architect, with him when he came to North Carolina in 1764. Hawks designed the Palace in the manner of a number of fashionable houses in the vicinity of London-- Georgian in style, with symmetry maintained throughout. It was soon regarded to be the finest public building in the American colonies. Governor Tryon, his wife Margaret Wake Tryon, and their daughter Margaret, lived in the Palace for just over a year. They left New Bern in June 1771, when Governor Tryon was appointed to the governorship of New York. Josiah Martin, the second royal governor to live in the Palace, fled in May of 1775 at the beginning of the American Revolution and his furnishings were later auctioned off by the newly formed state government. Patriots made the Palace their capitol and the fist sessions of the General Assembly met there to begin designing a free and independent state. Four state governors used the Palace: Richard Caswell, Abner Nash, Alexander Martin, and Richard Dobbs Spaight. On the evening of April 21, 1791, the Palace was the scene of a dinner and dancing assembly held in honor of President George Washington, who was visiting New Bern while on his Southern Tour. (See the section on the Stanly House.) Raleigh became the state capital in 1794. Space in the Palace was rented for various purposes, including a Masonic lodge, a private school and a boarding house. In February of 1798, fire started in the cellar, where hay was being stored. The fire quickly devastated the main building, which collapsed, but the Kitchen and Stable Offices were saved. The Kitchen Office was demolished in the early 19th century; the Stable Office survives. (See Kitchen and Stable Offices.) In the 19th century George Street was extended over the original Palace foundations and dozens of houses and businesses were built on either side. At the end of the street, a bridge crossed the Trent River. (see more at www.tryonpalace.org)