Reynolda House Museum of American Art displays a premiere collection of American art ranging from the colonial period to the present. Built in 1917 by Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband R. J. Reynolds, founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the house originally occupied the center of a 1,067-acre (4.32 km2) estate. It opened to the public as an institution dedicated to the arts and education in 1965, and as an art museum in 1967. The house holds one of the country's finest collections of American paintings. It is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.[1]
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Reynolda was the home of two generations of the Reynolds family. In 1935, Mary Reynolds Babcock, the elder daughter, acquired the estate. She and her husband Charles Babcock used the house as their vacation home until 1948, at which time they moved permanently to Reynolda. The property remained in the family for nearly 50 years. The museum has restored interior rooms and furnishings to reflect the periods when the family lived there.
Located on Reynolda Road, a large portion of Reynolda can be explored on foot. In addition to the house, 28 of the original thirty buildings remain. To the west lie the restored formal gardens, noted for their Japanese cryptomeria and weeping cherry trees. The 16-acre (65,000 m2) lake behind the house ("Lake Katherine") has reverted to wetlands, which provide a home for a variety of wildlife. Many of the buildings in the village are now occupied by boutiques, shops, and restaurants.[1] A short walk across the dam leads from the village to Wake Forest University, built on land donated from the grounds of Reynolda House to the college by Mary and Charles Babcock.
A French restaurant, La Chaudiere, once occupied the family's former boiler room, but closed in the 1990s.[1][2]