Old Gold and Black are the colors of Richard J. Reynolds High School, now a magnet school for the visual and performing arts. This public high school in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools was named for R. J. Reynolds, founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and opened here in 1923. Katharine Smith Reynolds-Johnston (1880-1924), widow of R. J. Reynolds (1850-1918), donated funds and land for the school's creation in his memory; the site was known as Silver Hill.
In 1919 the city planned a model high school, and a souvenir program for the dedication of the Memorial Auditorium records that intention and notes that Mrs. J. Edward Johnston believed such a memorial was fitting. You can still feel the weight of that purpose in the school's name and in its identity: often simply called R. J. Reynolds High School or Reynolds, it carries colors Old Gold and Black and a demon as its mascot. Stand here and imagine the community choosing to honor one life with a place of learning, and remember the family who gave both land and funds to make it possible.
Picture the campus spreading across historic Silver Hill, home to the demon mascot in Old Gold and Black.