Property Improvements, 1927 – 1934

In 1929, a fourth floor was added to the Annex (rue de la Grande Chaumière building) in order to accommodate new artist studios. Previously, the top floor had served as a terrace. On the ground floor where the art studios were once located, a large and elegant dining hall was opened.

Leet described the progress of the renovations:

In the new building the work does not progress so rapidly, but the wiring is installed, and the wash-stands and the radiators. I think the dining room will be ready for the first, but there is still a great deal to do for the kitchens. I selected the paneling for the dining room with the advice of two interior decorators, and I think it will be an unusually attractive room (Letter to Gildersleeve, October 8, 1929).

In the same letter, Leet raised the question of lighting for the new dining room: 

Monsieur Quisserne had planned to install indirect lighting in the dining-room, but the lighting experts and the interior decorators said that owing to the height of the room and the beams it would not give correct light. Monsieur Baguès, the director of an important decorating house in Paris, has designed special sixteenth century wrought iron hanging lamps for the room, and is making them for us at cost price since it is a student house.

These chandeliers still adorn the Salle de Conférence and three matching copies were made by Baguès in 2019 for Reid Hall’s library.

The passageway between the rue de Chevreuse building and the Annex was outfitted with a glass-covered steel gallery completed in July 1930, and a new entrance to the Grande Salle was built (Newcomb, Aug. 7, 1930).

The entire Annex, originally covered with yellowish bricks, was plastered to match the exteriors of the other buildings on the property, at Reid’s request. All buildings on the site were painted to look "more like the color of most Paris houses" (Board meeting minutes, Oct. 17, 1930). She stated in a 1930 telegram that she had "never liked the tone of the old building, which was made yellow to match bricks and never did" (Feb. 7, 1930).

The passageway between the rue de Chevreuse building and the Annex was outfitted with a glass-covered steel gallery completed in July 1930, and a new entrance to the Grande Salle was built (Newcomb, Aug. 7, 1930).

The entire Annex, originally covered with yellowish bricks, was plastered to match the exteriors of the other buildings on the property, at Reid’s request. All buildings on the site were painted to look "more like the color of most Paris houses" (Board meeting minutes, Oct. 17, 1930). She stated in a 1930 telegram that she had "never liked the tone of the old building, which was made yellow to match bricks and never did" (Feb. 7, 1930).

A Schenker duo-art electric piano was donated by Reid for concerts and events in the Grande Salle (Board meeting minutes, October 17, 1930).

In a notice to Club members, the Board of Directors announced these significant renovations:

Reid's enormous investment paid off – the Club attracted more residents and visitors than ever. Records indicate that 63 guests were accommodated in the winter of 1930 and 72 that summer (studios even had to be converted into doubles to meet the high demand).

Historian Dorothy Louise Mackay, who wrote about Reid Hall's history during her time as a resident, described the newly-renovated club:

Cross the threshold, push back the un-modern looking doors, and step back two hundred years into a Paris of quiet and charm - with modern plumbing (270).

In October 1934, St. Luke's Chapel was dismantled and removed from the property, leaving a vast empty space in the back garden in need of a redesign. The Board of Directors discussed plans for beautifying the garden that had been submitted by Andrew K. Wormath, a decorator living in France. It is unclear what exactly Wormath had in mind or if his project was ratified.

Later, the garden area in front of the Annex was named for Caroline McCormick Slade, a board member who was particularly instrumental in helping revive Reid Hall after WWII. Beginning in 1948, a fund in her name subsidized the garden’s maintenance and growth.