Winston-Salem has several of these. It's one of the things that surprises people when they move to Winston-Salem. It's also bad for density. Winston-Salem was one of the nation's top 25 industrial centers, at the height of the American Industrial Revolution. This city had great wealth and they loved to show it off. You'll find the work of many famous architects in these neighborhoods! These are all "old money" historic neighborhoods. No, Winston-Salem is not in the northeast or mid-west, though at times it may seem like it is.
Mansion Districts in Winston-Salem:
Reynolda
West Highlands
Country Club
West End
Washington Park
Buena Vista
Alta Vista (African-American Mansion District)
Victorian Millionaire's Row (mostly demolished)
Cherry Street Millionaires Row (half-demolished)
Reynolda:
The biggest houses are in Winston-Salem's Reynolda neighborhood. Sometimes it's called Reynolda Park Neighborhood, but I think the correct name is Reynolda? The largest of these houses was built around 1917 and is around 75,000 square feet, if I remember correctly? Yes, this inside Winston-Salem's city limits and this neighborhood has no density at all. These houses are hidden from the street, at the end of long driveways, often behind huge gates. Homes in Reynolda included their own private airplane landing strips, private golf course, elegant gardens, private lakes, a tourist attraction Modern Farm with a popular dairy business (converted to boutique retail stores about 35 years ago), an internationally respected anthropology museum, a conference center, polo grounds, world class art museums, one house had its own Tudor-style Methodist church (now it's open to anyone), and kid's playhouses that are bigger than my house! This neighborhood has the only Lord & Burnham Conservatory in the Southeast and has a major private university! The neighborhood did have its own amusement park at one time, with a small train, ferris wheel, sports center, rollerskating arena, etc.,. As you can tell, this neighborhood was... and still is... a tourist attraction for the city.
Credit: Nathan Hatch
Built in 1929; designed by famous New England architectural firm
Peabody, Wilson & Brown. The firm has work in only three states. This is a rare example of their work outside New York. Blanket money built this house: Chatham Blankets was the world's largest blanket manufacturer.
Credit: David Rolfe
The Middleton House was built in 1829 and is on the National Register of Historical Places. This is the oldest house in Reynolda. This house occupied one of the smaller lots in the neighborhood, on a 100 acre wooded family compound. Yes, the NRHP listing says wooded family compound. New York's
Ellen Biddle Shipman, one of the foremost female landscape architects in the country whose clientele included some of the nation's greatest industrialists, was hired in 1930 to redesign the grounds for the house. All of her work on this house survives.
Credit:
Susan Smith
The house Camel Cigarettes and Prince Albert in a Can built! Philadelphia architect Charles Barton Keen is largely credited with creating this style of house for wealth industrialists in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. When he designed this house for Kathryn Reynolds in 1914, he become Winston-Salem's favorite architect. His work was so much in demand, he opened an office at 8 W. Third Street in downtown Winston-Salem. You can tell his work by looking for the original "green roofs" around the city. This is the house where celebrated Broadway actress
Libby Holman shot wealthy aviator Zachary Reynolds in 1932. It was a major national news story and the basis for three movies,
Reckless, starring Jean Harlow, and
Written on the Wind.
Sing, Sinner, Sing, the novel and film by Robert Wilder, was also based on this and later became the basis for the TV show
Dallas. They changed the source of wealth in the story from tobacco to oil. Yes, it was that big of a national story!
Credit:
Scott
Credit:
Brian Leon
The beautiful gardens are the work of famed Philadelphia landscape architect Thomas Sears, in 1917. His work in Reynolda is on the National Register of Historic Places and was restored a few years ago by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Most of his work is found in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, and Winston-Salem. Thank you to the Smithsonian Institution for information on Sears. This is one of the featured works on their site.
Credit:
ugardener
Source: Preservation North Carolina
James Gray's father was the founder of Wachovia Bank, which became the nation's 4th largest bank, at its peak. Wachovia is the company that built the 30-story Winston Tower, 8 W. Third (oldest steel frame skyscraper in North Carolina), West End Center, and Wells Fargo Center (the tallest skyscraper in Winston-Salem). The house was featured in Forbes Magazine, when it was under construction. James and Nathalie Gray were world travelers and would buy the entire rooms from houses and buildings they liked, during their travels, for their new home. Yes, they would buy the painted ceilings, paneled walls, stonework, and fireplaces, dating back centuries in age and they asked their architect to design a house around it. The oldest item in the house is a 15th Century French carved stone doorway! I am guessing this is illegal today?
I'll post a few examples below!
This was once the lobby of a French hotel!
Credit: Graylyn
The hand carved gessoed and gilded panels are from a mosque, built in the 1800s, in Constantinople, Turkey.
Credit: Carolina Epicurean
I love this Art Deco pool!
Credit: Susan Smith
Matt's Photography Collection
Credit: Graylyn
This (image above) is now a boutique hotel, called The Mews, if I'm not mistaken? It was part of the polo grounds. This house is a popular place for weddings and meetings. A number of presidents and celebrities have stayed here, from former President Carter to Oprah.
Credit: Graylyn
Yes, the house was built around the rooms and items they bought on their travels! You can see why it was in a major magazine, during construction!
Credit: Livability
This is Reynolda Village, built around 1917. The modern farm tourist attraction that was converted to retail and restaurants. You can also see some of the city's interesting topography. A bus would take visitors from downtown to the modern farm, where farmers could learn the latest practices and see the latest equipment. The farm had a dairy, which supplied milk to many residents (remember the milkman at your door?).
Credit: Reynolda Village
Matt's Photography Collection
This 1920s Norman Revival home is the house T-shirts and underwear built. Yes, Hanes! I had to assemble this from multiple photographs! It's even bigger than this, with another wing to the left and two larger wings in the back! No one has a photograph showing the entire house. This house actually features a "Big Game" hunting lodge, with trophies from around the world. The wallpaper is original, which I found interesting enough to remember for this post. This is also a place people commonly report as haunted.
Credit: Art Info
(Above) The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA). This is one of two must see art museums in the Reynolda Neighborhood. Most people visiting Winston-Salem usually want to know where these two art museums or the Anthropology Museum are. They are in the Reynolda Neighborhood!
Demolished:
Credit: NC Modernists
Sadly, this beautiful home from 1939 was demolished, but it was the most interesting in the neighborhood, so I thought I would include it. I love the Streamline Moderne style!
This is just the Reynolda Neighborhood. Would you like short tours of some of Winston-Salem's other interesting mansion districts?