Dale and Jackie Reynolds
Jacqueline Morrow “Jackie” Reynolds may have a degree in business, but she has long been a true student of history. And even though she didn’t go to Clemson, Jackie is dedicated to preserving the history of Clemson University and the surrounding area.
A native of Florence, Alabama, Jackie grew up in an historic home. She said she and her father shared a love of history and were considered the historians of their family.
“When I was going to college, I had to decide if I wanted to major in history or not. My father discouraged me, because he knew I was probably not going to be a teacher, which is basically what history majors do — they teach,” she said. “I don’t think that I ever really wanted to be a teacher, so I went into business.”
Jackie attended Texas A&M, and after that, she worked in marketing for Exxon Chemical in Houston, Texas. That was where she met her husband, Dale Reynolds, a Clemson alumnus and mechanical engineer. After several years, the two got married, which meant that Jackie was marrying into the Clemson family, as well as the Reynolds family.
Both Dale and Jackie were able to retire early in 2000, thanks to a buyout from Exxon, and when they were thinking about where to spend their retirement, they kept coming back to Clemson. They knew they wanted to leave Texas, and Dale’s love of Clemson meant they had spent a lot of time on campus, especially attending sporting events. As Reynolds became more familiar with the area, the more she grew to love it, too.
“Honestly, it’s an exact parallel to where I grew up in Alabama,” she said. “The climate and environment were very much like what I grew up with, so I was comfortable here. And Dale always wanted to be back where he could go to all the football games, baseball games, whatever sport Clemson was playing, he wanted to be there. So it fit both of our needs.”
But Jackie wasn’t interested in purchasing just any house. She wanted to restore an historic home to spend her retirement in. And by “historic,” she meant something built before the 1900s. After a lot of searching, they found the right place in Pendleton. The house was originally considered a “tear down,” as it had been neglected for years and had fallen into some disrepair. But when Jackie walked inside for the first time, she realized it was a place worth saving.
The first thing they did was move the house from Mechanic Street to Broad Street, because the house was sitting too close to the road in its original location. Then they began the work of tearing out the “modernized” interior of the house, which they did themselves. They were able to figure out where things originally were placed in the house, and they hired a contractor to come in and put it back together again, recreating the original house layout as much as possible. They also decorated their home with many antique furniture pieces, most of which were purchased locally, to add to the authenticity of the restoration.
“It was interesting to take apart, and I’m glad we did it, because we learned so much about the history of the house, as we removed layers of wallpaper and drop ceilings and things like that,” she said.
Jackie has traced the documented history of the house back to around 1890. She suspects it goes back further than that, perhaps to the 1850s or 1860s, but she has found no documentation of it prior to 1890.
In addition to restoring and preserving her own home, Jackie has worked to preserve other historic homes in the area. She is an active member of the Pendleton Historic Foundation and served as its president for 10 years. PHF is responsible for managing and maintaining three historic homes in Pendleton — Woodburn, Ashtabula and its newest restoration, the Jenkins house. Under her leadership, the foundation successfully completed a campaign to establish a $100,000 endowment to support the preservation of these homes.
Jackie has also played a critical role in preserving the University’s historic properties. She was the first person to create an endowment to fund the maintenance of Fort Hill, the historic home of John C. Calhoun and Thomas Green Clemson. She was inspired to do so by reading a copy of Thomas Green Clemson’s will, which is the document that led to the foundation of Clemson University.
“If you read it carefully, it says that his house should be maintained as a museum and open to the public. If it is not maintained and open to the public, the house reverts back to the Clemson family,” she said. “The thought that this house could be taken away, it would be like taking away the guts of the University.”
Jackie asked if there was an endowment dedicated to supporting Fort Hill’s preservation, and when she found out there was not one, she decided to start one. She has since expanded that endowment to also include Hanover and Hopewell houses, Clemson’s other two historic properties.
She has also given to support Clemson’s graduate program in historic preservation, supporting the education of future preservationists. Between the two of them, the Reynolds have generously supported several other areas that tie directly to things they are passionate about — mechanical engineering, performing arts and veterinary medicine.
Jackie now serves on the Historic Properties Alumni Advisory Board, something she is able to do because she was named an Honorary Alumnus by the Clemson Alumni Association because of her incredible support of so many areas of the University. She said the honor came as quite a surprise to her.
“I was just astonished that they would recognize somebody who was a graduate of Texas A&M,” she said. “It was such an honor. What I did was significant to me, but I didn’t think anybody else would appreciate it in that way. I am very thankful for the recognition.”
Jackie enjoys traveling, especially to visit historic homes across the country and the world. She also enjoys opera and classical music and has traveled across the globe to see performances.
Since moving to Pendleton, she and Dale discovered their love for Boykin spaniels — the state dog of South Carolina — and they currently have one spaniel named Guppie.
Jackie has published two books about the history of Pendleton: “Pendleton, South Carolina, Recollections and Reflections” and “Pendleton, SC Historic Houses,” which includes a section on her own home. She is currently working on a third book about some of the important people in Pendleton’s history. Both of her books are available on Amazon and at the Pendleton Historic Foundation.