See Reynolda House by Candlelight For the First Time

Press Room

Friday, November 20, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Sharyn Turner
336.758.5580
sturner@reynoldahouse.org
or Sarah R. Smith
336.758.5524
manselss@reynoldahouse.org

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (November 9, 2009) This year Reynolda House invites the public to experience the holiday traditions of the Reynolds family with a guided candlelight tour of the 1917 Reynolds mansion. Tours will be offered on Thursday, Dec. 10, Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec. 12 at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 p.m. each day.

Admission is $12 for members and students, $15 for non-members. Reservations are suggested. For information and to purchase tickets, please call 336.758.5150.

As visitors approach Reynolda House, the gazebo and the entrance will sparkle with tiny white lights. Once inside, they will enjoy the historic house's period decorations. Tour guides will share family anecdotes taken from letters and diaries, and point out decorative highlights as visitors learn about the Reynolds family's holiday traditions.

The dining room table will be set for a holiday dessert, with sterling, lace and appliquéd table linens, and Katharine Smith Reynolds's monogrammed china. Carols will play on the Aeolian organ, and Christmas cards and letters drawn from Reynolda House archives will be displayed on the lake porch. Children will enjoy the family's doll house, on view for the holidays.

Decorations throughout the house will be illuminated by the soft glow of candlelight, and each 50-minute tour will conclude with refreshments and a slide presentation of archival holiday images in the Babcock auditorium.

Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation's premier American art museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its permanent collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University, Reynolda House features traveling and original exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917 estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150.

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Photo Credit: Winston-Salem Monthly Magazine

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