The Raynolds family was an early colonial family from Richmond VA. Joshua and his older brother Jefferson Raynolds moved west from Ohio to establish a bank in Colorado. Later they moved to Las Vegas and opened the Central Bank in 1876, which was Las Vegas's first bank. The Central Bank, was renamed to the First National Bank, out of which the First National Banks of Albuquerque and El Paso eventually were created.

The land where General Kearny and his troops encamped on a hill overlooking Old Town to the east, was bought by Joshua and Sara Ann Raynolds for $4,200 in 1883, for their new home. This Queen Anne style Victorian mansion had 17 rooms, including four indoor bathrooms, the first to be installed in a house in N.M. This impressive home included eight fireplaces, which had tile surrounds made in Stoke-on-Trent, England and mantels made of Oak and Light Walnut, complete gas lighting, stained glass and actually had nine closets. In 1955, the then President of N M. Highlands Universtity exercised the University's "right of eminent domain," and forced the destruction of this home, to make room for a new science building.