Ames Schoolhouse

The Ames School faces northwest on Washington Street (now Route 1A) just south of Dedham's Business District. Set back 120 feet from the street, on a 2.04 acre plot, the School- house is a freestanding structure presently surrounded by an asphalt playground which gradually slopes to the rear (photos 1 and 2). Fire Station, Town Offices, two gasoline stations, and densely packed commercial build- ings; architecturally they comprise Modern, 19th century and Colonial Revival styles. Across the street, and to the west, 19th century houses, separated from the road anc each other by lawns, Shrubs, and large trees, impart a domestic, suburban atmosphere. Several Greek Revival homes of brick or wooden frame constructionlead from the west, along Washington Street, to the Ames Schoolhouse.

Residences also abut the southern property line, but most of them are separated by back yards and a screen of deciduous trees- Occupying the largest site on this part of Washington Street, and standing larger than any of its neighbors, the Ames Schoolhouse physically dominates this area. By its restrained monumentality, and good state of preservation, it emerges not only as a functionally valuable link in Dedham's suburban fabric, but also as a commendable example of school architecture at the turn of the 19th century. Constructed in 1878, the Ames School is an imposing structure exhibiting elements of Colonial Revival and Shingle Style design.

It is symmetrically organized with a recessed central bay flanked by classroom wings, thus creating a H-Shaped plan which satisfied the requirements of a grammar school. It rises two stories from a foundation hangim of roughfaced pink Dedham granite to overhanging hip roofs currently covered with asphalt shingles.

/Architect Luther Greenleaf and Albert W. Cobb Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) The Ames Schoolpossesses integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeding and association. Built on the site of Dedham's first school, it possesses romantic associations with the town's illustrious seventeenth century origins. As an impressive public building it directly represents the town's development as a prosperous suburb. Finally, it is an excellent example of a monumentally scaled turn-of-the-century school in a Colonial Revival/Shingle style design. Thus, the Ames School meets criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places. The Ames Schoolhouse was dedicated on Jüne 17th, 1896 to serve children in grades 1-6.

It was erected on the-site of a free school established in 1645 and tried to evoke Dedham's past in both its architectural style and its motto ("'1664" , The Ames SchooIhouse : 1897, named in honor of Fisher Ames, a native of Dedham, a wise statesman, and a friend of Washington"). Records of the dedication reveal that the style of the school was expected to inculcate patriotic virtues in the children who attended it. Funded by general taxation of the entire population, the first Dedham school predated the 1648 statewide decree establishing local public schools. By 1649, a sahoolhouse with a watch tower was built on the site of the present Ames School. Over the years, this became the First Middle School district, ah institution which continued until 1981, when the Ames School closed.

While Dedham is perhaps best known as a Colonial and Federal period town, it continued to develop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a prosperous Boston suburb. During the 1880's and 1890's, Dedham outgrew its rural character.