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Published: January 21st 2012
Reynolda
The backside of Reynolda, R. J. Reynolds former estateWhen one thinks of modern North Carolina, pigs and tobacco often come to mind (along with
stock car racing and
college basketball).
These are two of the state’s
biggest exports.
The place to explore their influence is
Winston-Salem.
This city was built by the cigarette industry.
In fact, it gave its names to cigarettes.
This is a town where convenience stores have signs noting that if one’s favorite brand is sold out, they get a free pack on the next visit, and another sign apologizing for needing to card people.
Reynolda
All of this is the legacy of one man:
Richard J Reynolds.
He started as a tobacco farmer, but in 1875 changed to manufacturing a then new product, cigarettes.
He did very well at it, and soon was the largest employer in town.
He was unusually generous with his wealth, funding hospitals and
schools across the area.
He also did something no businessman in North Carolina had done before: crossing the color line by funding
facilities for blacks that were just as good as their white counterparts (note that they were still segregated, however).
In his late 50s, he married a young socialite, Katherine
Reynolda driveway
The driveway to Reynoldia, showing just a portion of the beautiful landscaping. Smith, who was three decades younger than he was.
She set out to design and build the ultimate country estate to showcase their taste.
She did a very good job, and
Reynolda is now her legacy.
The estate is now a combination of house museum and art gallery.
Unlike the Telfair Museum in Savannah (see
Trees and romance) the art is shown within the rooms of the house.
Some are pieces that the family bought and others were acquired after the house became a museum.
Tours of the museum are self-guided, with docents available to answer questions.
The house is a showcase of restrained opulence.
Part of the reason is that it was built in 1919, when the excess of the Gilded Age (see
Valley of Romantic Memories) had long since passed.
Rooms feature rich fabric and wood, and carefully chosen furniture.
The house features an
Aolian Electric Organ, carefully concealed behind tapestries.
This is the only organ of its type that still exists in its original state.
I enjoyed this house tour more than some of the others I have been on.
There was much less of the overwhelming attention to
Reynolda formal gardens
A small portion of the Reynolda formal gardens, showing the geometric layout decorative arts than some other tours, and I was able to take it at my own pace.
The house works much less well as an
art museum than as a historic house.
The museum focuses on American Art, with a heavy emphasis on realism.
The art that is displayed in public rooms as part of the décor works fairly well.
The rest is awkwardly crammed into spare rooms, such as the guest bedrooms upstairs.
I found viewing it rather frustrating, which is a pity because the work is high quality.
Other museums, such as the
Frick Gallery in New York, display art in the context of someone’s home, but they wisely display the overflow in purpose built rooms.
The Reynolda has such a room, but it is only used for temporary shows.
The largest part of the collection appears to be the
Hudson River School and
American Scene Painting.
After the museum I toured the
gardens.
Mrs. Reynolds constructed a
large formal garden based on Japanese concepts.
The garden has been restored, so the plants are not all period accurate.
The design is highly geometric, with a pagoda in the center.
Unusually, the
Reynolda Japanese Pavilion
Japanese style pavilion and fountain within the formal gardens at Reynolda flowers are arranged by color rather than type.
It’s cold enough in central North Carolina compared to Charleston that most of them had not flowered yet.
The house was sited overlooking a great lawn on a hill.
The lawn is still there, although the sides are now heavily overgrown.
At the bottom of the lawn, she dammed a stream to create a lake, and constructed a boathouse.
In the half-century since then, the lake has filled with silt, so it is now a swamp.
Seeing the still existing boathouse on the edge of a swamp was truly surreal.
Southern Loblolly Pines
I need to point out that today was also my first encounter with something what will be my nemesis for the next few weeks, the southern loblolly (also called pitch) pine.
This particular tree species produces
huge amounts of pollen in the spring.
It coats everything in the vicinity, cars included.
This tree spreads through large parts of central and eastern North Carolina.
I’m rather allergic to it.
My nose was sniffling every time I went into a rural area, including Reynolda.
Reynolda Great Lawn
The former great lawn in front of Reynolda. Lexington Barbecue
After Reynolda I experienced the legacy of pigs.
Pigs are found throughout Southern cooking.
They can be raised anywhere in the region, and they yield a large amount of meat for the effort.
One Southern cookbook I saw is simply called “
The Pig”.
The height of southern pig cooking has to be
barbecue.
The center of the barbeque world in North Carolina is located in
Lexington, a town near Winston-Salem.
This city has a large number of barbeque joints, and residents argue over barbeque cooking the way Philadelphia natives argue over cheesesteak.
The one thing they all agree on is that only pig meat is acceptable, and the sauce must be carefully and exactly mixed.
I could have picked a place to eat in Lexington blindfolded.
I chose
Lexington Barbecue after a Google review search.
The restaurant looks like an old barn.
One smells wood coals and charred meat in the parking lot, a smell that only gets stronger inside.
The menu is a laminated sheet.
It discusses the barbeque in exacting detail: Pork shoulder only, salting only before cooking, and cooked
Reynolda Boat House
One of the most surreal sights at Reynolda: The boat house on the shore of the swamp that used to be an artificial lake. over hickory coals for at least six hours before serving.
There are other items available, but the only worthy order is shredded barbeque with a side of hush puppies, washed down with sweet ice tea.
It was served on a paper plate.
This meat made every other barbeque I’ve ever had (including the meal from Georgia:
Golden Swamps) taste like amateurs.
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