Massachusetts The road to the West to Wyoming
Ames Free Library by H.H. Richardson
room of the Ames Company when he immiDue to the way our grated from Ireland at 16 years of age. country grew, tales of Oliver Ames & Company, later O. Ames the West often stem from tales of the East. & Sons, produced 60 percent of the shovels I recently visited in this country in the 1800s. They did well North Easton, Mass., because they maintained a high standard of the home of my famquality. Starting with shovels used at Bunily for generations. ker Hill in 1774, the Ames provided shovels Our roots in that town used for macadam roads, canals, the War of go back to 1803. I was 1812, railroads, the Civil War (at Lincoln’s there to attend an request),the gold rushes of Alaska, AustraAmes family yearly lia, and, of course California. In California, dinner, and, as usual when I visit there, I Ames shovels were used as legal tender by learned more about the family. This time I the 49ers. realized how much the family has done for The success of the business created the town of North Easton since Oliver Ames surplus funds that needed investing outestablished himself there in 1803. side of the company. Much of those funds The shovel facfound their way tory that Oliver into the western started provided railroads, partly gainful work for at the request of hundreds of men President Linand supported coln. many families But, I started out to tell about from the beginwhat the Ames ning of Oliver’s there family had done business until the family for North Easton. sold their share In the town cenBust of Oliver Ames, Jr., 1807-1877, by Augustus of the business ter is the gracious Saint-Gaudens in the Ames Free Library. in the late 1950s. Ames Free LiMany of the workers in the 19th century brary, designed in 1877 by architect Henry were immigrants to this country, especially Hobson Richardson. Oliver Ames Jr., who from Ireland and Sweden. had been president of the Union Pacific These new cultures became a part of the Railroad left it to the town in his will. When fabric of the town. When the company sold the need for more library space arose, one in the 1950s, the new owner was Bernard P. thought was to build a second library. InMcDonough who had worked in the forge stead they extended the building to the back in such a way that the beautiful facade is not compromised. I am entranced by the vaulted wooden ceiling in the main room. Oliver Jr. also left money for a Unitarian Church, which has recently been restored to its original beauty. The LaFarge stained glass windows sparkle with beautiful life in the sunlight. Various Ames homes and buildings have been purchased or donated to the town and have been maintained to house community functions: governmental, political, educational and social. One fine example is the Frederick Lothrop Ames estate, which was purchased as a location for Stonehill College. The mansion looks out over the pleasant campus. The Ames family is grateful to have their family archives stored there. North Easton is touched with the talents of some of the most gifted architectural artists of the late 1800s. Henry Hobson Richardson designed not only the library, but also the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall, the Old Colony Railroad Station (home of the Easton Historical Society), the Ames Gate John La Farge stained glass window in Unity Church of North Easton Lodge and the F.L. Ames Gardener’s CotPAGE 20
tage. These five buildings comprise the H.H. Richardson Historic District of North Easton. Working with Richardson on the above were Orlando Whitney Norcross of Norcross Brothers, the first general contractors in the country, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a foremost sculptor of the time, who often embellished Richardson’s buildings. Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape designer of New York Central Park, created public landscape for the town and for private estates. The most recent and controversial project has involved the old shovel factory. Some potential developers just wanted to tear it down. It is an enormous campus with numerous long, narrow stone buildings, each for different stages of building shovel blades and handles, etc.. Once it was all run by waterpower. The final decision was to turn the buildings into housing units. Because of the placement of windows and
doors (the spaces must remain the same for the sake of historic preservation) and the narrowness of the buildings, the configuration of the apartments has been a creative challenge. Most will be offered at market rate, the remainder for affordable housing. A sign-up list is growing and I understand that the Ames name shows up on it. As promised, this story actually does find its way to the West. It involves the main focus of my research, which centers on a windy hill between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyo., at the 60-foot tall Ames Monument. I will be telling you much more about the monument and why it came to be in coming months. For now, it was the collaboration of these artists from the East bringing their talents West: designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, built by Orlando Whitney Norcross through his superintendent A.L. Sutherland, and decorated by Augusts SaintGaudens. Frederick Law Olmsted visited and pronounced it the monument most suited to it’s environment.
The Ames Shovel Factory
It takes skill to make rocks like these that appear in the arch random at the entry of the Ames Gate Lodge. It was designed by Henry H. Richardson.
THE COLORADO GAMBLER – Celebrating 21 Years
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