The 1917 country estate of tobacco fortune built by R.J. and Katharine Reynolds is now a celebrated art museum — and the riding trails at night reportedly belong to a Lady in White on horseback identified as Katharine herself.
2250 Reynolda Rd, Winston-Salem, NC 27106
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Museum admission required; see Reynolda House website for current pricing. Grounds may be accessible separately.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic estate with indoor museum galleries and outdoor wooded grounds, trails, and wetlands.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1917 · Country estate of R.J. Reynolds, founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, completed 1917 · Designed around Katharine Smith Reynolds's model of a progressive agricultural community · Katharine Reynolds died 1924 at age 44; she is the subject of the primary haunting tradition · Converted to Reynolda House Museum of American Art; collection donated to Wake Forest University · Referenced in the 2011 book Ghosts of the Triad
Reynolda House was completed in 1917 on 1,067 acres northwest of Winston-Salem as the country estate of Richard Joshua Reynolds and his wife Katharine Smith Reynolds. R.J. Reynolds had built the American Tobacco Company into one of the largest corporations in the United States by the time he commissioned the estate; the estate's construction was partly a reflection of Katharine Reynolds's vision of a model agricultural community, with tenant farms, a school, a church, and innovative agricultural practices that she oversaw.
R.J. Reynolds died in 1918, the year after the house was completed, leaving Katharine as the estate's primary occupant and manager. She continued her progressive agricultural and educational initiatives at Reynolda until her own death in 1924 at age 44, reportedly from complications following surgery. Her early death — leaving four children and a functioning estate model she had designed — is a recurring element in accounts of her presence at Reynolda after death.
The estate passed through Reynolds family stewardship before being converted to a museum of American art in the 1960s by Barbara Babcock Millhouse, a granddaughter of R.J. Reynolds, who donated the collection and the house to Wake Forest University. Reynolda House Museum of American Art today holds works ranging from colonial-era portraiture to twentieth-century American painting and decorative arts, with the historic house itself preserved as an interpretive element of the museum experience.
The Southern Spirit Guide, a regional paranormal-documentation source, published a detailed account of Reynolda's ghost tradition in 2011, the same year the book Ghosts of the Triad referenced the estate. Local media including WSToday/6AM City covered the haunting in 2022.
Sources
The most striking account in Reynolda's paranormal record comes from a law enforcement officer responding to a security alarm at the estate. According to accounts documented by the Southern Spirit Guide, the officer heard the sounds of a party in progress in the basement — specifically the sound of a bowling ball rolling and striking pins — upon arrival. When he entered the basement, the room was empty and contained no bowling equipment.
The more sustained tradition involves a figure known as the Lady in White: a woman dressed in white riding a horse through the wooded trails and wetland areas of the Reynolda grounds, reportedly seen at night and in early morning hours. Most researchers and accounts identify the figure as Katharine Reynolds, who died at 44 in 1924 after establishing the estate as her principal project and home. The Southern Spirit Guide's 2011 documentation of the tradition places the apparition primarily in the wooded sections of the grounds and near the boathouse.
WSToday/6AM City's 2022 coverage of Winston-Salem ghost stories included Reynolda among the city's significant paranormal sites, and the tradition is also referenced in the 2011 book Ghosts of the Triad. Because Katharine Reynolds is a documented historical person, the attribution of the Lady in White to her is presented here as the prevailing interpretation in the tradition — not a verified identification. No violent incident, crime, or unusual death at the property itself has been identified in available sources; the accounts frame the presence as attached to the estate Katharine built rather than to any traumatic event.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour the 1917 Reynolds estate, now housing a nationally recognized collection of American art from colonial times through the twentieth century. The surrounding wooded grounds, trails, and boathouse — the setting of most paranormal accounts — are accessible alongside the main house.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Winston-Salem, NC
Salem College was founded in 1772 by the Moravian Church in Salem, North Carolina, making it the oldest women's college in the United States. The campus occupies buildings spanning three centuries adjacent to the Old Salem historic district. Babcock Dormitory is named for Mary Reynolds Babcock (1908–1953), daughter of R.J. Reynolds Sr. and a philanthropist, whose portrait hangs in the dormitory hallway.
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Winston-Salem, NC
The Salem Tavern was built in 1784 to serve travelers stopping in the Moravian settlement at Salem, North Carolina. The Moravian congregation built and operated the tavern — a common enterprise in Moravian settlements — as a source of revenue and a place of hospitality for outsiders. President George Washington lodged here in May 1791 during his Southern Tour, an event documented in his own diary.
Lexington, NC
Lexington's courthouse was built in 1858 in a stone temple form, making it one of the more architecturally distinctive county seats in the North Carolina piedmont. Damage from Lexington's 1932 'Big Fire' led to significant renovation work in 1933; the building now houses the Davidson County Historical Museum.