The family lived at 666 W Fifth St in Winston-Salem in a palatial Queen Anne mansion, designed by architect George Franklin Barber.

[3] Her management and money skills allowed her to undertake extensive civic duties, such as the creation of a local YMCA chapter, in which she served as President, and Junior League.

Her independent wealth, alongside that of her husband, allowed for her to participate extensively in philanthropy, donating generously to a variety of causes such as the creation of hospitals and orphanages.

[4] In addition to her familial, societal, and civic responsibilities, around 1905 Katharine Reynolds, with the full financial support of her husband, began to design her own estate of Reynolda.

Shortly after in 1921, her mother remarried to J. Edward Johnston, a teacher who worked on the estate's private school and about 13 years Katharine's junior.

And we’d put an Elsie Dinsmore cover on the Sheik of Araby, something like that..."[7] As a child, Mary Reynolds went to a small private school within Reynolda Village on the estate, and eventually went on to Salem Academy to further her education.

In December 1929, Mary Reynolds married Charles Henry Babcock, son of an investment banking family from Philadelphia.

The wedding ceremony was performed at Reynolda in front of the fireplace in the main hall; in January 1930, her sister Nancy married in the same spot.

In a letter to her sister, she wrote: "Everyone I asked blew up over Reynolda becoming a vets’ hospital...I guess Reynolda will go on to live a longer life and end as an ancient ruin.” When the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation offered Wake Forest University annual financial assistance in return for the college moving to Winston-Salem, she donated the initial 350 acres for the new university's grounds, eventually to a total gift of 605 acres.

[12] A groundbreaking ceremony for the new campus was held in 1951 and attended by President Harry S. Truman, who gave the keynote speech of the day.

One of Babcock's most notable philanthropist donations was the initial gift of land from the family estate for the relocation of Wake Forest University.

Upon her death in 1953, her will provided twelve million dollars for the establishment of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation,[15] a philanthropic organization for the benefit of North Carolinians, particularly to "help people and places to move out of poverty and achieve greater social and economic justice.

[17] In the 1960s, the Reynolds' wealth had passed into the hands of a second generation of family members who were far removed from the political and economic struggles of the workplace.

They took their cues instead from the culture of mid-twentieth-century American philanthropy, which puts its faith in social engineering and the use of private wealth to advance the common welfare.