​Auction Sale
North Easton was truly a company town. Many homes were built by the Ames family to house workers in the shovel shops. By 1930 this concept was becoming obsolete. To live in one place and work in another had become a more common practice and worker housing was no longer of the same importance. More people were eager to own their own homes. It was expedient that the company offload some of its properties. So, on Thursday June 19, 1930, at 11:00 am in North Easton, an auction was held on order of The Ames Shovel and Tool Company. For auction were 34 dwellings one- and two-family dwellings, and according to the pamphlet, all set in “one of the most attractive villages in Eastern Massachusetts”. In total 18 cottages, 16 double dwellings, 3 four-family dwellings, 2 store properties and 2 building lots were for auction. Terms were the property went to the highest bidder.

​Looking into the area known as Ramcat from Main Street, to the right of Shovel Shop buildings. No one seems to know where the name Ramcat came from.
Ramcat was an area across the street from the Old Colony Railroad Station, the current home of the Easton Historical Society & Museum. Today it is a grassy area great for dog walking but at one time it was home to Ames employee boarding houses. The last of these were torn down on the order of Mary Ames Frothingham in 1930. Left at that time were four wooden structures (some built to house 2 or more families) and two small stone buildings. I believe these were listed in the auction circular, but perhaps didn't sell? I’m not sure.

This early photo of the Ramcat area showing a number of the employee boarding houses, was taken sometime prior to the Railroad Station being built in 1882.
The Ames family holdings were extensive, and the family certainly put its stamp on North Easton, not just in terms of the beautiful Richardson buildings and mansions but also in terms of family homes. Busy families still inhabit these homes today.
 
Anne Wooster Drury

[email protected]
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After graduating from Harvard in 1895, Winthrop Ames went into the publishing business, as a career in the theater was strongly objected to by his family. His brother Hobart, who was five years older, would become president of the Shovel Works in Easton and was an outdoorsman who lived part time at his plantation in Grand Junction,Tennessee. Winthrop was considerably different, and his interests lay in the arts to which he was naturally drawn. By 1904 he was following his passion, leasing the Castle Square Theater in Boston where he focused on producing Shakespeare’s plays. 
After turning his attention to NYC, Ames worked as managing director of the New Theater in NYC and later, in 1912, opened the Little Theater. In 1913, he opened the Booth Theatre on West 45th St. with the Shuberts and worked as manager of both the Little Theater and the Booth Theater into the 1930's. During WWI he organized the Over There Theater League which sent actors overseas to entertain the troops. According to David Ames, Winthrop was a perfectionist and took a great interest in mentoring young people in the theater world. While he subsidized many, he expected nothing in return. “His satisfaction stemmed from them making good.” (David Ames)
Productions in the two theatres included The Philanderer (1913), by George Bernard Shaw, Galsworthy’s Old English (1924), George S. Kaufman and Marc Connelly’s Beggar on Horseback (1924), an extremely successful series of Gilbert and Sullivan revivals at the Booth (1926–29), and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1913). This last was written by Ames under a pseudonym and was the first play specifically for children.
 Over the years Winthrop brought many famous guests to his home at Queset House in North Easton. These included George Arliss, Peggy Wood, Guthrie McClintic and author John Marquand.

George Arliss,
 British actor

​Peggy Wood,
American actress 

 
 In 1981 Ames was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was married to Lucy Fuller Cabot. They had two children. 
 
Anne Wooster Drury

[email protected]
 
Sources:
History of Easton, Vol. II
The New York Public Library archives, Winthrop Ames papers
Encyclopædia Britannica - American theatrical movement
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