New Bern Historic District

New Bern's historic district occupies the original town site at the meeting of the Neuse and Trent rivers in Craven County, North Carolina. The town was established in 1710 by Baron von Graffenried, and John Lawson's plan of broad streets and generous lots still largely survives. Little remains from the earliest years, but fourteen Georgian buildings have been identified. The district's strongest feature is its Federal architecture. After the Revolution, prosperous merchants built restrained, Adamesque town houses, and over fifty such buildings survive, along with the New Bern Academy, the Masonic Temple and Theater, and the First Presbyterian Church. The Federal style lasted into the 1840s, later giving way to Greek Revival, Italianate, Gothic Revival and Queen Anne designs. A lumber-driven building boom in the early twentieth century, largely designed by Herbert Woodley Simpson, added Neo-Classic Revival houses and civic buildings. The nomination describes the district as retaining its atmosphere and scale, with architectural range unique in North Carolina.