Katharine Smith Reynolds

Katharine Smith Reynolds (November 17, 1880 – May 23, 1924), later Katharine Smith Johnston, was the wife of tobacco tycoon R. J. Reynolds and a philanthropist who designed the Reynolda House estate. Early life Katharine Smith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Katharine was the oldest of six children of a prosperous local businessman, Zachary T. Smith and his wife, Mary Susan Jackson. Katharine was well educated and attended the State Normal and Industrial School, now known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in the fall of 1897. After a typhoid epidemic broke out 1899, Katharine transferred to Sullins College in Bristol, Virginia where she graduated in 1902. After returning home from graduation, Katharine worked for R. J. Reynolds, her first cousin once removed, as a secretary at The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The two eventually married in 1905. After an early 8 a.m. ceremony, the couple left for a lavish four-month honeymoon across Europe. The couple then moved in R.J's Queen Anne-style mansion located at 666 Fifth St in Winston-Salem, site of the present-day Forsyth County Public Library. Reynolda House Reynolda House, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was the home of Katharine and R.J. Reynolds. Involved in both the design and construction, Katharine envisioned a progressive, self sustaining country farm and estate built upon the selected 1,000 acre land outside of Winston-Salem. Katharine hired landscape engineers Buckenham and Miller to draw up the master plan, renowned architect Charles Barton Keen of Philadelphia to design the central house or bungalow, and Thomas Sears to plan the gardens. Construction took eight years and when the Reynolds family moved in December 1917, Reynolda was home to a farm complete with the latest in technology and agricultural practices, a dairy, recreational facilities, and a school. After Katharine died in 1924, the estate was held in trust until 1934 when Katharine and R.J's daughter Mary and Mary's husband Charles Babcock Sr acquired Reynolda House. They worked to modernize the estate and eventually donated much of the land for an art museum opened in 1967. Philanthropy As a woman of privilege and wealth, she sought social progress and progressive reform, as evidenced in her push for reforms in the tobacco factory. These included amenities such as hot lunches and water fountains to a nursery for working women.