The Reynolda House Museum of American Art is home to a world-class collection of American art that spans the centuries from the colonial period to the contemporary day. The mansion, which was originally located in the middle of a 1,067-acre estate, was built in 1917 by Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, R. J. Reynolds, who was the founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
It first opened its doors to the public in 1965 as an institution dedicated to the arts and education, and then in 1967 as an art museum. The house is home to one of the most impressive collections of American art in the country. It is located in the city of Winston-Salem, in the state of North Carolina.
The planning and construction of the building began in 1912 and continued until the end of 1917. Not only the main house, but also the hamlet that comprised a church, stables, and a school, was designed by Charles Barton Keen, a well-known architect in Pennsylvania and New York who had previously achieved remarkable success in the field of residential architecture.
Katharine Reynolds was very involved with the design of Reynolda, and some of her correspondences with Keen survive. The Reynolds family ultimately moved into their new home in December 1917, but R. J. Reynolds was ill with pancreatic cancer at the time and was unable to appreciate his new surroundings. He passed away on July 29, 1918.
The Reynolds family lived in Reynolda for two generations, and it was their home away from home. The estate was purchased by Mary Reynolds Babcock, the eldest daughter, in the year 1935. She and her husband, Charles Babcock, used the house as a vacation retreat until 1948, when they decided to make Reynolda their permanent home.
Over the course of over 50 years, the land stayed in the family. The museum’s interior rooms and furnishings have been refurbished to reflect the periods during which the family resided there. Green terra cotta tile roofs, like the one on the Ludowici house in Winston-Salem, NC area, had an impact on many other notable homes and buildings in the area. In 2002, Reynolda established a formal affiliation with Wake Forest University.
A considerable amount of Reynolda can be explored on foot because it is located on Reynolda Road. In addition to the home, 28 out of the original thirty structures are still standing. The renovated formal gardens, which are notable for their Japanese cryptomeria and weeping cherry trees, are located to the west.