R J Reynolds High School - Black and Gold Yearbook (Winston Salem, NC)

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Beginnings Richard Joshua Reynolds High School opened her doors to students in February 1923. Students entered a yet unfinished building to continue classes that they had started at Winston High on Cherry Street. Winston High School, more commonly called Cherry Street High, was started in 1908 and served as one of the two main city high schools until it was destroyed by fire on January 9, 1923. Prior to this, the first city high school in the school system was West End School, founded in 1884, one year after the start of the Winston-Salem school system. In 1908 when Winston High was built, West End made the transition to an elementary school. Winston High for whites and East Winston for blacks then served as the two city high schools until 1923 when Reynolds replaced the burned Winston High. For several weeks after Winston High burned, students attended classes in the building of St. Paul’s Church, prior to coming to the Reynolds campus. Throughout the spring of 1923, while students attended classes, construction continued. Reynolds High, then unnamed, was planned to be not only a high school but also a cultural center for the system. It was going to contain the largest art gallery in North Carolina. It was also supposed to house a center for vocational training in the school system. According to the original plans, there was supposed to be a twin building to the present main building, which was to be located on the other side of the auditori- um. Because of the lack of money, this building was never built. Also because of lack of funds, Reynolds never became the cultural center anticipated. Money for the school auditorium was donated as a memorial to Richard Joshua Reynolds by his widow, then Mrs. Johnston, thus causing the school to be soon named in his honor. Upon completion, the auditorium was dedicated in May 1924. The school was built on what was originally an extensive tract of good land called Silver Hill Plantation. It was built on the top of the bluff to overlook a meadow. Shortly after, this meadow, a 47-acre tract of land, was donated by the Hanes family to be a perpetual site for recreational and educational purposes for school children only, thus acquiring the name Hanes Park. At one time, a Reynolds student was able to stand at the top of the bluff and view all the schools Wills he attended as a part of his public education in this system. The building was placed so that its. back was to the auditorium and its side to Hawthorne Road because of the fact that a street had been proposed to cut from Hawthorne to Northwest Boulevard approximately where today a tunnel goes under Northwest Boulevard from the gym to the campus. Thus the Reynolds main building would have faced that proposed street. The classical architecture of Reynolds is of Southern Georgian or Colonial style and may be seen from many points of the city. This architecture did not deviate much from the typical school architecture of the time in which it was built. The main en- trance is a masterpiece in architecture, of the Roman Corinthian order, studied as to proportion after the Pantheon in Rome. The school had one of the first air condi- tioning systems of its type in the state. Large blocks of ice were kept in the basements of the main building and auditorium. Huge fans blew air across these blocks and into vents which opened into most rooms in the buildings. An underground tunnel was built to connect the main building with the auditorium to allow students to remain under shelter when going between buildings.

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Winston High School — Cherry Street High School Built 1908-1909 Burned Jan. 9, 1923