Historic Overview

New Bern was settled in 1710 by Swiss and Palatine German immigrants. The new colonists named the settlement after Bern, the capital of Switzerland and hometown of their leader Christoph von Graffenried. The English connection with Switzerland had been established by some Marian exiles who sought refuge in Protestant parts of Switzerland. There were also marriages between the Royal House of Stuart and notable people in the history of Calvinism. The colonists later discovered they had started their settlement on the site of a former Tuscarora village named Chattoka. This caused conflicts with the Tuscaroras who were in the area.

New Bern is the second-oldest European-American colonial town in North Carolina after Bath. It served as the capital of the North Carolina colonial government, then briefly as the state capital. After the American Revolution, New Bern became wealthy and quickly developed a rich cultural life. At one time, New Bern was called “the Athens of the South,” renowned for its Masonic Temple and Athens Theater. These are both still very active today.

New Bern has four historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places; their numerous contributing buildings include residences, stores and churches dating back to the early eighteenth century. Within easy walking distance of the waterfront are more than 164 homes and buildings listed on the National Register. Also, nearby are several bed and breakfasts, hotels, restaurants, banks, antiques stores and specialty shops. The historic districts contain many of the city’s 2,000 crape myrtles—its official flower—and developed gardens. New Bern has two “Local Historic Districts,” a municipal zoning overlay that affords legal protection to the exteriors of New Bern’s irreplaceable historic structures. These areas provide much of New Bern’s unique charm, appeal to retirees and heritage tourism, and contribute to the city’s economic success. The Local Historic Districts, while vitally important to New Bern, comprise only 2.43% of New Bern’s 27-square-mile area. There is considerable area available for new development.

Tryon Palace Governor’s Mansion

Royal Governor William Tryon and his family brought architect John Hawks from London to design and build the Georgian-style structure. Completed in 1770, Tryon Palace served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina and home to the Tryon family.

Tryon Palace was the site of the first sessions of the general assembly for the State of North Carolina following the revolution and housed the state governors until 1794. In 1798, fire destroyed the original Palace building. An extensive 30-year campaign to rebuild the Palace and restore the grounds was launched by the people of New Bern, state leaders, world craftsmen, and generous, dedicated citizens such as Mrs. James Edwin Latham. Their efforts led to the triumphal reopening of the Palace in 1959. Today, the Palace lives on as a testament to history, community and rebirth.

During the 19th-century Federal period, New Bern became the largest city in North Carolina, developed on the trade of goods and slaves associated with plantation agriculture. After Raleigh was named the state capital, New Bern rebuilt its economy by expanding on trade via shipping routes to the Caribbean and New England. It was part of the Triangle Trade in sugar, slaves and desired goods. It reached a population of 3,600 in 1815.

Civil War Battle of New Bern

In 1862 during the early stages of the Civil War, the area was the site of the Battle of New Bern. Union forces captured and occupied the town until the end of the war in 1865. Nearly 10,000 enslaved blacks escaped during this period in the region and went to the Union camps for protection and freedom. The Union Army set up the Trent River contraband camp at New Bern to house the refugees. It organized the adults for work. Missionaries came to teach literacy to both adults and children.

After the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, slaves in Union-occupied territories were declared free; more freedmen came to the Trent River camp for protection. The Army appointed Horace James, a Congregational chaplain from Massachusetts, as the “Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District.” In addition to the Trent River camp, James supervised development of the offshore Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony, which was intended to be self-supporting. Beginning in 1863, a total of nearly 4,000 freedmen from North Carolina enlisted in the United States Colored Troops to fight with the Union for their permanent freedom, including 150 men from the colony on Roanoke Island.

Due to the continuous occupation by the Union troops, New Bern avoided some of the destruction of the war years. There was much social disruption because of the occupation and the thousands of freedmen camped near the city. Still, it recovered more quickly than many cities after the war.

The lumber industry becomes cornerstone of economy

By the 1870s the lumber industry was developing as the chief part of New Bern’s economy. Timber harvested could be sent downriver by the two nearby rivers. The city continued to be a center for freedmen, who created communities independent of white supervision: thriving churches, fraternal associations, and their own businesses. By 1877 the city had a majority-black population.

The state legislature defined the city and county as part of North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district which, as former plantation territory, held a concentration of the state’s black residents. They elected four blacks to the US Congress in the late 19th century. The state’s passage of a constitutional suffrage amendment in 1900 used various devices to disenfranchise black citizens. As a result, they were totally closed out of the political process, including participation on juries and in local offices; white Democrats maintained this suppression mostly, until after passage of federal civil rights legislation, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which provided for federal enforcement of constitutional rights.

By 1890 New Bern had become the largest lumber center in North Carolina and one of the largest in all of the South. During this time, as many as 16 lumber mills were running and employing hundreds of men from New Bern and the area. The competitive nature of the lumber barons, the abundance of lumber and craftsmen, led to the construction in New Bern of some of the finest homes in the South, many of which have survived. The lumber boom lasted until the 1920s. One by one the lumber mills went out of business. Today only Weyerhaeuser manufactures lumber in the area.

Pepsi-Cola is born

Caleb Davis Bradham was born in Chinquapin, North Carolina, on May 27, 1867. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Bradham attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine in hopes of becoming a doctor. While attending school, he worked part-time as a pharmacy apprentice at a local drug store. Unfortunately, a family crisis forced Bradham to drop his pursuit in medicine and return home to North Carolina. Upon returning, he taught school for a short period of time before opening a drug store on the corner of Middle and Pollock Streets in downtown New Bern. Bradham’s Drug Store would later become the very place Pepsi-Cola was invented. In 1893, “Brad’s Drink,” made from a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other natural additives, became an overnight sensation. Despite its name and hearsay, pepsin was never an ingredient of Pepsi-Cola.

On August 28, 1898, Bradham renamed his drink “Pepsi-Cola.” He believed the drink was more than a refreshment but a “healthy” cola, aiding in digestion, getting its roots from the word dyspepsia, meaning indigestion.

In late 1902, the Pepsi-Cola Company was formed due to the rising popularity and demand for the Pepsi-Cola Syrup with none other than Caleb Bradham as the first president. The business began to grow, and on June 16, 1903, “Pepsi-Cola” became an official trademark. By 1904, the Pepsi-Cola Syrup sales reached almost 20,000 gallons. As demand for the drink continued to rise, Bradham decided it was time to offer Pepsi-Cola in bottles. By 1910 there were 240 franchises in 24 states and that year the Pepsi-Cola Company held their first Bottler Convention in New Bern.

Hard times fell on Bradham and the Pepsi-Cola franchise during WWI. This was due to the high price and severe rationing of sugar. This rationing prevented Pepsi-Cola from producing enough syrup to meet the demands of consumers. Though Bradham attempted multiple substitutes for sugar, like molasses, the outcome was always an inferior taste to the original. After the war ended sugar prices soared from 3 cents to 28 cents per pound. Bradham purchased a large quantity of the high-priced sugar, which would be a factor to the company’s downfall. Pepsi Cola officially was bankrupt as of May 31,1923, and its assets were sold to Craven Holding Corporation for $30,000.

After years of ups and downs, PepsiCo is now back on top. In 2013, Pepsi was ranked #1 on CoreBrands’s list of Most Respected Companies. The company was also ranked #41 on the Fortune 500 list, in 2012.

Union Point Park

Union Point Park borders the Neuse and Trent rivers. It is the site of the city’s major celebrations, such as Neuse River Days and the Fourth of July. Since 1979 the Swiss Bear Downtown Revitalization Corporation has worked to redevelop downtown; it has stimulated the creation of art galleries, specialty shops, antiques stores, restaurants and inns. This area has become a social and cultural hub. James Reed Lane is a downtown mini-park and pedestrian walk-through on Pollock Street across from historic Christ Church. Private restoration efforts have returned many of the downtown buildings to their turn-of-the-twentieth-century elegance.

In 2005, a segment of NBC’s The Today Show noted that New Bern was one of the best places in the United States to retire. Retirees from the northern states have added to its population.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Attmore-Oliver House, J.T. Barber School, Baxter Clock, Bellair, Blades House, Bryan House and Office, Cedar Grove Cemetery, Cedar Street Recreation Center, Centenary Methodist Church, Central Elementary School, Christ Episcopal Church and Parish House, Coor-Bishop House, Coor-Gaston House, Craven Terrace, DeGraffenried Park Historic District, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, First Baptist Church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, First Missionary Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church and Churchyard, Ghent Historic District, Gull Harbor, Harvey Mansion, Hawks House, William Hollister House, Thomas Jerkins House, Jerkins-Duffy House, Jones-Jarvis House, Ulysses S. Mace House, Masonic Temple and Theater, Mount Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, New Bern Battlefield Site, New Bern Historic District, New Bern Municipal Building, New Bern National Cemetery, Rhem-Waldrop House, Riverside Historic District, Rue Chapel AME Church, Slover-Bradham House, Eli Smallwood House, Isaac H. Smith, Jr., House, Benjamin Smith House, Smith-Whitford House, St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter’s AME Zion Church, Edward R. Stanly House, John Wright Stanly House, Stevenson House, Isaac Taylor House, Tisdale-Jones House, and York-Gordon House.

Downtown Districts

The city has four National Historic Districts and two local ones, which have helped preserve the character of the architecture. The Downtown Local Historic District is 368.64 acres (149.18 ha) or 0.576 square miles (1.49 km2); the Riverside Local Historic District covers 51.94 acres (21.02 ha) or 0.081 square miles (0.21 km2).