Background
Marcus T. Reynolds was born in 1870 at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States.
Marcus T. Reynolds was born in 1870 at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, United States.
The youth received a preparatory education at St. Paul's School in Concord, Mass., and in 1886 entered Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.), where he completed an academic course and graduated in 1890. After deciding to become an architect, Mr. Reynolds studied three years at Columbia University's old School of Mines in New York, and broad¬ened the scope of his training during two years in Europe.
In 1895 he opened an office in Albany, and continued active in architectural work the rest of his life. Among his most important works in the city was a remodeling of the old Albany Academy for occupancy by the local Board of -Education, 1913; the William S. Hackett Junior High School; the Pruyn Library completed in 1929 and designed in collaboration with his son Kenneth G. (who maintained practice after the elder architect’s death under the name of Marcus T. Reynolds), and finally the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Office Building in Albany, his largest and most successful building. Elsewhere he was architect of the Gideon Putnam Hotel at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and other public and commercial buildings in the state.
In addition to his architectural practice Mr. Reynolds devoted much of his time to civic affairs. He compiled the first Building Code for the City of Albany, and published a later revised edition, also participated in City Planning work and various Civic Improvement projects, including the removal of several blocks of old buildings in the down-town section of the city in preparation for the proposed new Plaza