Richard J. Reynolds High School

Richard J. Reynolds High School now the Richard J. Reynolds Magnet School for the Visual and Performing Arts (often simply R. J. Reynolds High School or Reynolds) is a high school in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Named for R. J. Reynolds, the founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the school opened in 1923. The school colors are black and gold, and the school's mascot is a Demon.EstablishmentMade possible through the philanthropy of Katherine Smith Reynolds-Johnston, the widow of R. J. Reynolds and the mother of Zachary Smith Reynolds, who donated the land for the School and the Auditorium.CampusThe School and Auditorium sit on a piece of land known as "Society Hill". The complex consists of five buildings, three of which are contributing buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. They are the High School Building (1922-1923), the Power House (1923), and the Auditorium (1923-1924). They were designed in the late 1910s by architect Charles Barton Keen of Philadelphia and built as part of a single project.Original plans for the School included two grand school buildings sitting on either side of an Auditorium. Construction on the School began in 1919, under the direction of Reynolda House architect Charles Barton Keen. The first classroom building was finished in 1923, but construction on the second building was delayed and eventually abandoned after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. In the early 1990s, the high school building was thoroughly renovated and restored to its original appearance with some modern updating (e.g., a computer lab to replace the former language lab, and central air-conditioning).