Reynolds Memorial Laboratory

The Reynolds Memorial Laboratory was, given in 1886 by Mortimer F. Reynolds as a memorial to his brother, William A. Reynolds, a former trustee of the University.  The building was enlarged and refurnished in 1915.

The building was sold in 1955 to Carhart Service, Inc. as a photo laboratory and was torn down in 1964.

References
1872 William Abelard Reynolds (1810-1872), grave in Mt. Hope Cemetery

1884 Semi-centennial History of the City of Rochester, by William Farley Peck
Pages 692-695:  William Abelard Reynolds and Mortimer F. Reynolds.

1886 Interpres, by Class of 1887
Page 81-82:  Engraving and description of the Reynolds Memorial Laboratory.

1886 "Description of new laboratory given by M. F. Reynolds,"  Rochester Union and Advertiser, 0ctober 19, 1886,  Page 3-1

1886 "Contract Awarded," Democrat and Chronicle, September 30, 1886, Page 6.
The contract for steam heating in the Reynolds Memorial Building at the university was yesterday awarded to Barr & Creelman of this city.

1887 The Campus, January 22, 1887, Page 70.
The new Reynolds Laboratory, the foundation of which was laid a year ago this fall, was opened on Monday last.

1892 Mortimer Fabricus Reynolds (1814-1892), grave in Mt. Hope Cemetery

1904 Chemistry Laboratory, from Library of Congress

1910 The University of Rochester : buildings and grounds
Pages 11-12:  Reynolds Laboratory

1925 The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, by J. T. White
Pages 79-80:  Mortimer Fabricius Reynolds, banker.

1927 Rochester, the making of a university, by Jesse Leonard Rosenberger, with an introduction by President Rush Rhees.
Page 216:  The year 1887 witnessed the completion of the Reynolds Memorial Laboratory prior to the annual meeting of the board of trustees in June. The building was erected by Mortimer F. Reynolds, a banker in Rochester, in memory of his brother, William A. Reynolds, who had been a trustee of the university. Constructed of brown stone, the building was fireproof, seventy-one feet long, sixty-five feet wide ,and three stories high. It cost $25,000. The board expressed the warmest admiration for the personal care and attention which the donor had devoted to the construction of the building, the thoroughness of its construction, the chasteness of its architecture, and the admirable facilities afforded by its interior arrangements.
Page 295:  Two years later [1915] the Reynolds Laboratory was enlarged by building on a new part which yielded 2,280 square feet of floor space; and the well-lighted basement was refinished so as to provide two laboratories and two good recitation rooms, as well as coat rooms and lavatories; besides which the furnishing of the building was completely modernized, producing a chemical laboratory modern in every particular.

1955 "UR Sells 2nd Campus Building," Democrat and Chronicle, September 9, 1955, Page 23.
Reynolds Laboratory sold to Carhart Service Inc.

1964 "Carhart's Breaks Ground," Democrat and Chronicle, August 12, 1964, Page 7D.
The present plant, a former University of Rochester science building with walls nearly three feet thick, will be razed to make room for additional parking.

1977 History of the University of Rochester, by Arthur J. May (on-line version with footnotes)
Chapter 10: The End of an Age
Undoubtedly, the completion in 1887 of a campus structure in which chemistry would be taught and research conducted quickened the concern of the U. of R. authorities about science in general. In his annual report of 1881 Anderson told the trustees that a flood of special students in chemistry made the construction of a chemical laboratory an imperative necessity, and he carefully studied the plans of a building of that sort at Vassar. Treasurer Sage and Professor Lattimore spread the gospel among Rochester citizens of means, and to their great joy Mortimer F. Reynolds, as mentioned earlier promised to finance a laboratory. Having inherited a fortune which he enlarged by astute banking and industrial operations, Reynolds (who, incidentally, was the first white child born in the frontier village that grew into the city of Rochester) had established a reputation for civic benevolence by gifts for a superior community library that bore the family name.
He gave the Reynolds Laboratory to the U. of R. as a memorial to his deceased brother, William A., sometime a University trustee, and out of esteem for Lattimore. He hoped that the building might ''stand forever on the beautiful grounds of the University, an example of architectural solidity and harmony, an ornament to my native city..." To plan the layout, Lattimore was released from teaching responsibilities and he supervised the actual construction and equipment of the building. Oscar Knebel of Rochester was engaged as architect and contracts for the various phases of construction were awarded to Rochester firms. Ground was broken in October of 1885 and in January, 1887, the laboratory was available for teaching--a far swifter performance than in building Sibley Hall. Costing slightly less than $25,000, the building was constructed of reddish Albion stone in what was called Romanesque style with a tower in the center and dormer windows jutting out from the slate roof. It had two stories, a basement, an attic, and was heated by steam and was fireproof throughout. On the ground floor, whose hallway boasted a gay mosaic pavement, were two large laboratory rooms, a private laboratory for Lattimore, a library, an office, and a storeroom. Wrought iron stairways led up to lecture and apparatus rooms and cases of chemical exhibits on the second floor. The attic was assigned to experiments in photography, then an infant Rochester industry, while the basement had a workshop as well as a furnace and fuel storage bins. Regarded as a model structure with ''admirable facilities'' for instruction and scientific investigation, the Reynolds Laboratory was hailed as a monument to the practical talents of Lattimore "in its combination of economy of expenditure with perfection of arrangements."

The Reynolds Family 

© 2021 Morris A. Pierce