Reynolda at 100: Reynolda Gardens

Reynolda Gardens, created during the American Country Place Era when most formal gardens were intended for private use, instead reflects Katharine Smith Reynolds’s interest in a landscape open and easily accessed by the surrounding community. Initially planned by landscape architect Louis Miller, the designs were finalized and perfected by Thomas Sears. The four-acre formal gardens and adjoining greenhouse welcomed 10,000 visitors in 1917 with a stunning array of annuals, perennials, and flowering shrubs; lines of Japanese cedars and Japanese weeping cherry trees; fruit and vegetable gardens; and pergolas, fountains, arbors, and shelters — most of which are still enjoyed today. 

Drawn largely from the historic photographs and manuscript collections from the Reynolda House Archives, many on display for the first time, this new exhibition will show the role the gardens played in Katharine Reynolds’s ambitious vision for a New South and how Reynolda Gardens, built to complement and support a working estate, continues its historic mission of education and public access as Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University.