Private or Public?

by Bari Helms

The history of Reynolda is full of mysteries and curiosities. One point of curiosity—the location of the formal gardens. At the time of Reynolda’s construction, most formal gardens were intended for private use and were most often situated behind or at least adjacent to the main residence. But at Reynolda, Katharine Reynolds chose to locate her formal gardens as an extension of the greenhouses and along a public road, which leads to the question: were the gardens at Reynolda meant to be public? Private? Or a hybrid of both? Further, what did it really mean for a space to be public in the context of 1917?

When Katharine unveiled her model farm in 1917, the Twin-City Sentinel described Reynolda as an “experiment station... destined to become one of the great factors in the development of rural life” in North Carolina. Katharine created a space for local farmers and their families to come and learn the newest techniques in scientific agriculture, dairying, livestock management, and horticulture. But did this public accessibility extend to the formal gardens?

Katharine opened her greenhouse and gardens for many public and private events. Reynolda Road provided easy social and commercial access while still protecting the family’s privacy. Chrysanthemum shows were held annually in the greenhouse beginning in 1913, before the formal gardens were even planted in their final form. An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged and plants were sold for the benefit of the local YWCA, of which Katharine was a founding member. The annual show continued during World War I for the benefit of the Red Cross. Students at Reynolda School used the gardens as their stage for plays and operettas, like their 1921 performance of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

While rare, it was not

Above: Harvey and Rosalie Miller visiting Five Row, late 1940s or early 1950s. Opposite: Bynum Fulcher Sr. (left), touring Reynolda Gardens, around 1918.

unprecedented for a private estate to open portions of land to the public. Greystone Hall, built in 1907 for Philip M. Sharples, inventor and manufacturer of the cream separator, opened 300 acres of woods and landscaped gardens to the public as a park, even turning a playhouse, similar to the one found at Reynolda, into a community gathering space for local children. Reynolda and the Sharples estate had a vital element in common— architect Charles Barton Keen. Katharine carpentry work, taking home lumber scraps and nails to most definitely looked to Greystone Hall as a model build toys and wagons. They could play golf on the ninefor her modernized dairy, so it is possible that she was hole course but only at the end of the day after caddying. inspired by the public gardens as well. They played in the underground heating tunnels but Katharine’s younger daughter Nancy Susan Reynolds have been allowed the freedom to roam the gardens on believed that her mother “wanted the public to a Sunday afternoon like the Fulcher family. The Civil enjoy [the gardens] without losing the privacy of Rights Act of 1964 would come years after the gardens the family.” Newspaper accounts, oral histories, and were donated to Wake Forest University. photographs indicate that Reynolda’s gardens were When Mary Reynolds Babcock at times accessible to the “[Katharine] provided took over Reynolda in the local community. However, frequent access to her 1930s, she continued her Reynolda as a working estate gardens... but she adhered mother’s tradition of public existed during Jim Crow to the strict racial etiquette events in the gardens. Letters segregation, one of the most repressive climates for Black of the time...” written in the 1940s describe the gardens open annually in citizens in North Carolina April with visitors “coming history. Katharine was progressive and yet still very out in droves” to see the cherry trees. With a love of much a woman of her time. She provided frequent gardening and floral design, Mary was an enthusiastic access to her gardens at a time when green spaces set supporter of garden clubs. She joined the Twin City aside for public use was uncommon, but she adhered Garden Club after her move back to Winston-Salem to the strict racial etiquette of the time and viewing the and was instrumental in getting the club affiliated with gardens would have been for white citizens only. the Garden Club of America. In her 1951 appeal to the Photographs depict white Reynolda construction “open to the public without charge all year. When the worker Bynum Fulcher touring the gardens with family cherry trees are in bloom thousands of visitors come and friends, but even for Reynolda’s workers access from all over the country to see it.” to the estate could be segregated. Children of white only while also cleaning them. Black families would not national organization, Mary described her garden as workers who lived in Reynolda Village had their run Between 1946 and 1951, Mary and her husband Charlie of the property. They rode bicycles or horses through Babcock donated 350 acres of the Reynolda estate the estate, swam in Lake Katharine, played tennis, to Wake Forest College for its relocation to Winstonran through the underground heating tunnels, and Salem. Ultimately the Babcocks would donate over drank chocolate milk from the dairy. In contrast, Black 600 acres to Wake Forest. After Mary’s death in 1953, children who grew up in the community of Five Row did Charlie Babcock donated additional acreage, including not enjoy the same access, primarily interacting with the formal gardens and greenhouses, with specific Reynolda through the odd jobs they held. They cleaned instructions to preserve the space as a community and helped repair cars in the garage and assisted with resource.