John B. Lane (1834-1910), a leading builder in post-Civil War New Bern, was one of three sons of New Bern’s best-known antebellum builder, Hardy B. Lane, Sr. (1793-1856). The other sons were Frederick Lane (ca. 1824-1868) and Hardy B. Lane, Jr. (b. ca. 1829). Doubtless trained by their father, the Lane sons entered building practice with their father and then followed in his footsteps. John B. Lane was the most prominent, working with Frederick and Hardy Jr. as Lane Brothers for a time, and practicing his trade into the 20^th century.

In 1850, the U. S. census listed Hardy B. Lane, Sr., as head of household, with his two younger sons, Hardy (aged 21) and John (aged 13) living in his household along with other family members and working in his shop. The eldest son, Frederick (aged 26), also a house joiner, headed his own household next door. As boys and young men, they probably worked with their father on some of New Bern’s most substantial and stylish antebellum buildings (see Hardy B. Lane, Sr., building list), and they continued in their trades after their father’s death in 1856.

In 1860 and 1870 Hardy B., Jr., and John B. Lane were living at home along with other family members in a household headed by their widowed mother, Harriet. Frederick, the eldest son, worked briefly after the Civil War with builder Edward M. Pavie before dying in 1868. In 1871 John B. Lane and Hardy B. Lane, Jr.—identified as the Lane Brothers—were the builders of the Weinstein Building. One of the first major downtown buildings after the war, the 3-story brick building with fire retardant features such as iron shutters was erected after an earlier building burned.

Working on his own by 1880, John B. Lane became the town’s leading carpenter-builder. His carpentry shop stood on Johnston Street. He was described in 1880 as a “master builder and architect” when he built the Craven County Jail in that year. His most important project was the Craven County Courthouse (1883), a massive and elaborately detailed brick edifice in the Second Empire style. Also built to replace a predecessor that had burned, the courthouse was designed by the firm of Sloan and Balderston—in which the principal was Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia, who also planned other major buildings in North Carolina, including the Executive Mansion in Raleigh. John B. Lane continued to build for several years, incorporating the popular Queen Anne style in such examples as the George Slover House (1894), and advertising both as “architect” and “contractor and builder” into the early 20^th century.

• Catherine W. Bishir, Lynda V. Herzog, and Peter B. Sandbeck, “North Carolina Architects and Builders: Hardy B. Lane and Sons,” North Carolina Preservation, 64 (July-Aug. 1986).
• Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina Architecture (1990).
• Catherine W. Bishir and Michael T. Southern, A Guide to the Historic Architecture of Eastern North Carolina (1996).
• Gertrude S. Carraway, Crown of Life: History of Christ Church, New Bern, N. C., 1715-1940 (1940).
• Craven County Records, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
• Lynda Vestal Herzog, “The Early Architecture of New Bern, 1750-1850,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of California (1977).
• Peter B. Sandbeck, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina (1988).