Craven County Digital History Exhibit

New Bern, Gaston House Hotel

Click on image above for a more detailed image

Title: New Bern, Gaston House Hotel

Creator: Reed, William Garrison

Subject: New Bern (N.C.)
                Gaston House Hotel
                Hotels--North Carolina--New Bern
                William Pell Ballance & Co.
                Grocers--North Carolina--New Bern
                South Front Street (New Bern, N.C.)
                Streets--North Carolina--New Bern--South Front Street--300 Block

Description: Image of the Gaston House Hotel and Wm. Pell Ballance Co., Wholesale Grocers, located on the South side of South Front Street (current 300 block). The merchant firm of Devereaux, Chester and Orme originally built the building early 1800s. It became a hotel in the 1850s, changing it's name to The Hotel Governor Tryon in its later years. A fire destroyed the hotel on 2 Nov 1965. [Information from John Green III, A New Bern Album (New Bern: Tryon Palace Commission, 1985), p. 90-91.] Reed further describes the photograph as, "The Gaston House, New Berne.--Originally built for a pork curing, packing, and store house, at the head of a wharf; the passage to the wharf being through an archway, where is now the main entrance to the hotel. Apparently there has been no change in twenty-two years. 'Mac' thought he recognized a broken pane of glass as being the same one that he noticed when on guard in front of the hotel in May, 1863."

Date: October 1884

Type: Image

Format: 7-13/16x6 inches (199x150 mm)

Identifier: XXV.14

Source: Donated by William Garrison Reed, 1926.

Relation: One image from a collection of 48 /digital2/reed/images/ in a photo album.

Coverage: New Bern (N.C.)

Rights: Permission to use this photograph must be obtained from the New Bern-Craven County Public Library, 400 Johnson Street, New Bern, NC 28560. Must cite as: William Garrison Reed Photo Album, New Bern-Craven County Public Library.

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Images scanned and text prepared by Victor T. Jones, Jr.

This page last edited on 21 Aug 18.