Mary Taylor Reeves was the daughter of Mark and Caroline Reeves, and in 1872 she married nationally known lawyer and reformer William Dudley Foulke in Paris.  They came to Richmond to live in 1876 and settled in the area known as Linden Hill, located at South A and 18th.  Their house was a center of literary and artistic activity as long as the Foulkes were in residence. 

Many clubs originated and flourished at Linden Hill, including the Tuesday Club, the women's literary club The Cycle, the Music Study Club, the Richmond Dramatic Club, and the Richmond branch of the American Association of University Women.

Mrs. Foulke was a patron of the Richmond Art Association, and for many years she sponsored an annual "Mary T. R. Foulke Prize" for local artists.

Mrs. Foulke's favorite cause was early education.  She was a pioneer in a Richmond free kindergarten and worked to have it instituted into the school system.  Early day care in the form of the Day Nursery was another of her passions.

Like her mother, she was a strong supporter of the Morrisson-Reeves Library, serving on the Reeves Committee after her mother's death.  Early in its history, the library had not been able to have a separate area designated for children, and she was instrumental in creating the Boys and Girls Room in 1901.  She also commissioned a bronze plaque featuring a sonnet written by her husband titled, "In the Public Library," and had it installed in the library during the commemoration of Indiana's Centennial in 1916.