A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a day trip to Winstom Salem where my earliest memories come from. We got lunch with some longtime family friends and had a lot of fun visiting and catching up.   We then embarked on a whirlwind day of sightseeing.  If I could remember it, we visited it.  First up on the memory tour was Reynolda House.

When we were little, our parents enrolled us in art classes at Reynolda House because they were phenomenal parents.  All I could remember of the experience were fragmented memories of ice cream sundaes, an indoor one-lane bowling alley, water-colored t-shirts, and beautiful gardens.  Visiting the home again twenty years later was quite an experience.

The house was built in 1917 by Katherine Smith Reynolds, wife of R. J. Reynolds, as a self-sufficient country estate.  There were farms, schools, and churches built for the people who worked to keep it all running.  The house itself is filled with beautiful furnishings, incredible examples of decorative arts from around the world, and an attic full of fashion from the turn of the century through the ’60s.  There is an indoor bowling alley, shooting gallery, and pool with nearby bird cages for tropical birds to add to the over-the-top ambiance.  It also boasts an amazing, and I mean amazing, collection of American art.  All you art lovers can check out the list here.  I’d expected to see some of the great landscapes and portraiture, and even the Impressionists, but was pretty surprised to see so many modern and contemporary works too.  There was even a Nam June Paik in the basement!  Although the more recent works have been collected since the house became a museum, it was interesting to see works by Bierstadt, Peale, Cassatt, and Church as they would have been displayed for everyday enjoyment as opposed to display in a formal museum setting.

Unfortunately I couldn’t take any photos inside, so you’ll just have to check out the Reynolda House website if you are interested.