More information on this image is available at the Easton Historical Society in North Easton, MA
www.flickr.com/photos/historicalimagesofeastonma/albums
The development by Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation of the factory and village land use in a rather organic manner with a mix work-related classes created an integrated geographic network. The housing on perimeter edge with factories and business affairs in the center creating the village concept in North Easton. Other important concepts were the Furnace Village Cemetery, Furnace Village Grammar School and the Furnace Village Store, which explains Furnace Village and other sections of Easton.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
.
Borderland Historic District
The Borderland Historic District in Easton/Sharon, Massachusetts is a twentieth-century estate comprised of eighteenth-century farmland, forest, and waterways. The district, now largely Borderland State Park, includes several farm buildings, farmland, cemeteries and a 20th century estate, complete with mansion, pool (now filled in), gardens, and lawns. Located on the borders between Easton, Sharon, and Stoughton, the area has changed from tribal land of Native Americans to farmland of early settlers to the country estate of Oakes and Blanche Ames. The district as it stands today is largely defined by open fields, manmade ponds, stone walls, and other site features.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
.
History of Bay Road below
Borderland
Doctor Asahel Smith Farmhouse and Barn
In 1778, records show Dr. Asahel Smith’s father, Michael Smith, was born in Stoughton, to Capt. Asahel, and Sarah Smith. In 1851, records show Dr. Asahel Smith’s father passed away in Sharon. On July 25, 1814, records show Dr. Asahel Smith was born in Merrimack, New Hampshire, to Michael, a shoemaker, and Betsey Crane Smith. In 1818, records show residing in Canton were Michael, and his wife, Betsey Crane Smith, their two sons, Dr. Asahel, and Ansel A. Smith. In 1825, records show residing in Sharon were Michael, and his wife, Betsey Crane Smith, their daughter, Mary F. Smith, and their two sons, Dr. Asahel, a shoemaker like his father, and Ansel A. Smith. Prior to his marriage in 1839, records show Dr. Asahel Smith’s parents, living in Sharon, saw the arrival of a daughter, Martha Smith in 1827. On December 21, 1839, records show, at the age of 25, Dr. Asahel Smith married Almira Gilbert in Sharon, the granddaughter of Deborah Sampson, a descendant of John Alden and Governor William Bradford of the Mayflower. In 1840, records show residing in Sharon were Dr. Asahel, a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with a new born son, George Gilbert Smith, followed by a newborn daughter, Emily Almira Smith, in 1841. In 1842, records show residing in Stoughton were Dr. Asahel, a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their son, George Gilbert Smith, and their daughter, Emily Almira Smith, and a newborn son, Frederick Augustus Smith. Between 1844 through 1846, records show living in Easton were Dr. Asahel, a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their two sons, George Gilbert, Frederick Augustus, with their daughter, Emily Almira Smith, with a newborn son, Albert Deroyce Smith, in 1844, and a newborn daughter, Eglantine Angelia Smith, in 1846. In 1848, records from Stoughton show Dr. Asahel, a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their three sons, George Gilbert, Frederick Augustus, Albert Deroyce, with their two daughters, Emily Almira, Eglantine Angelia Smith, and their newborn daughter, Eldora Fitzalan Smith. In 1850, records show Dr. Asahel Smith had found a different calling as a clairvoyant physician using botanical remedies to heal his patients. Records show Dr. Asahel Smith became interested in Spiritualism by becoming a follower of the Fox sisters in Rochester, New York, the birthplace of American Spiritualism. Being one of several others from Easton in the movement, notably Dr. William B. Webster of Seven Union Street, Dr. Smith began to practice healing through clairvoyance, using botanical remedies, mediumistic experiments and lectures. Records show Dr. Asahel Smith spent the next 30 years devoted to the healing arts. In 1850, records show living in Easton were Dr. Asahel, still a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their three sons, George Gilbert, Frederick Augustus, Albert Deroyce, and their three daughters, Emily Almira, Eglantine Angelia, Eldora Fitzalan Smith, with two boarders, Jonathan Johnson and his son, Jonathan T. Johnson. In 1851, records show Dr. Asahel, still a shoemaker, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with a newborn son, Deroyce Myron, and another newborn son, James Britton Smith, in 1853. In 1851, records show Dr. Asahel Smith’s father, Michael Smith, an inn holder in Stoughton, passed away. In 1855, records show living in Easton were Dr. Asahel, a clairvoyance doctor, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their five sons, George Gilbert, Frederick Augustus, Albert Deroyce, James Britton, Deroyce Myron Smith, and their four daughters, Emily Almira, Eglantine Angelia, and Eldora Fitzalan, with a newborn daughter, Emmeletta Elizabeth Smith. On February 7, 1857, records show, in their early forties, Dr. Asahel, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, had a newborn son, Baby Smith, who passed away on February 14, 1857. In 1860, records show living in Easton were Dr. Asahel, a clairvoyance doctor, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their four sons, Frederick Augustus, Albert Deroyce, James Britton, Deroyce Myron Smith, and their four daughters, Emily Almira, Eglantine Angelia, Eldora Fitzalan, and Emmeletta Elizabeth Smith. Dr. Asahel Smith purchased property as he farmed the land and the property was the future location of the historically named the Doctor Smith Farmhouse and Barn. In 1870, records show living in Easton were Dr. Asahel, a clairvoyance doctor, and his wife, Almira Gilbert Smith, with their four sons, George Gilbert, Frederick Augustus, Albert Deroyce, James Britton Smith, and their four daughters, Emily Almira, Eglantine Angelia, Eldora Fitzalan, and Emmeletta Elizabeth Smith. In 1870, records show Dr. Asahel and Almira Gilbert Smith were worth three thousand dollars in real estate and two thousand dollars in personal estate. In 1880, records show residing in Easton was Dr. Asahel Smith listed as a botanical physician at the age of sixty-two years old. In 1880, records show Dr. Smith’s nine children with married families in the neighborhood, Smith and four of his sons built now historically known as Doctor Asahel Smith Farmhouse and Barn at Borderland State Park. In 1911, map records show the Dr. Asahel Smith Farmhouse and Barn at 91 Bay Road, with an attached barn with several other buildings. In 1888, records show Dr. Asahel Smith passed away in Easton. Records show the farmhouse with front door in the middle of the house. Records show front and rear porches were added to the original building in the original location along a road with a row of trees the west side of the house. In 1906, records show Oakes and Blanche Ames purchased the property and Doctor Asahel Smith Farmhouse and Barn when they started to acquire land later to be part of Borderland. Records show prior to the purchases of land by Oakes and Blanche Ames, the Smith and Wilbur families had worked the woods into fields, managed woodland and farms for agricultural use of the land. In the 1700s and the early 1800s, records show the large field parcels were clear-cut by the Wilbur, Smith, and Leach families. In 1906, records show Oakes and Blanche Ames began converting their purchase of farmland parcels to various horticultural and recreational uses. Records show Oakes and Blanche Ames maintained three hay fields, a total of thirty-five acres, were leased to farmers who harvested hay and alfalfa. Records show the purchases by Oakes and Blanche Ames were included many farm parcels like the Ten Acre Field, located to the north of Upper Leach Pond, fields adjacent to the Doctor Smith Farmhouse and Barn, fields to the north of the pond, and a field to the south of the service driveway between the Mansion and the George E. Wilbur Farmhouse, 251 Massapoag Avenue.
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source; Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Conservation and Recreation
source; Borderland State Park
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
Source: Rich Eastman
Borderland, Ames Mansion
Like other members of the Ames family in Easton building estates with multiple parcels of land, Oakes and Blanche Ames acquired twenty-seven individual properties to create the seventeen hundred and eighty-two-acre estate. Records show parcels of land were divided by stonewalls, wire fences, open spaces and forests. Borderland got its name from the location of both ancient tribal borders and modern-day town lines. In 1878, Blanche Ames, born in Lowell, her parents, Adelbert and Blanche Butler Ames, encouraged Blanche toward a higher education and equal opportunity. Exploring new opportunities in the Ames tradition, Blanche enrolled in Smith College, when few women attended college, gave the commencement address at her 1899 graduation exercises. In her address being attended by President McKinley, Blanche told the audience, "We are fortunate to live in an age that, more than any other, makes it possible for women to attain the best and trust development in life." Records show Blanche Ames’ husband, Oakes Ames, a member of the Ames family , who were owners of the Oliver Ames and Sons Corporation at 28 Main Street in North Easton. The son of Governor Oliver Ames, (1831-95) and his wife, Anna Coffin Ames (1840-1917), a great-grandson of shovel shop founder Oliver Ames (1779-1863), Oakes Ames was born in 1874. In 1900, Oakes Ames grew up at 35 Oliver Street, married Blanche Ames, sister of his classmate Butler Ames of Lowell, two years after graduating from Harvard. On October 22, 1895, records show the Oakes’ father, Oliver Ames, of 35 Oliver Street, passed away. In 1900, records show Oakes and Blanche Ames began their marriage by living at his childhood home at 35 Oliver Street in North Easton with his widowed mother, Anna Coffin Ames, his two sisters, Evelyn C., and Susan E. Ames. Later, Oakes and Blanche Ames were living at 355 Commonwealth Avenue, the former home of Oakes’ father, Governor Oliver Ames. Records show Oakes and Blanche moved to 225 Bay State Road, also in Boston’s fashionable Back Bay neighborhood. While living on Bay State Road, records show they began their planning for a country estate south of Boston. In 1906, Oakes and Blanche Ames began their purchases and lived at the newly purchased Col. Israel Tisdale Farmhouse, at 697 Mountain Street in Sharon, located at the northeast of the existing Leach Pond. In 1906, Alice Buck Pratt, of 111 Rockland Street, sold the land to Oakes Ames in two parcels, on the northwest corner of Rockland Street and Allen Road. The first parcel consisted of sixty-nine and one-quarter acres that reserved the William Dean Cemetery “as it is now walled in” and the right to pass to and from the burial ground to Rockland Street. Records show the second parcel was seventeen and three-quarter acres on the south side of Rockland Street. According to Anna Buck, one of George and Marion Buck’s thirteen children, Oakes and Blanche Ames rented 111 Rockland Street, her father’s childhood home, to Anna Buck’s family after they returned to Easton in 1911.In 1910, records show residing at the formerly called Col. Israel Tisdale Farmhouse at 697 Mountain Street were Oakes, a botanist, and his wife, Blanche B. Ames, with their two daughters, Pauline, Evelyn, their two sons, Amyas, and Oliver Ames, with seven servants. By 1910, Oakes and Blanche B. Ames purchased surrounding individual parcels, including a place called "Borderland," which they called home. There they raised turkeys, pheasants, mink, and cattle. In 1910, the construction of the Mansion started with the building of the library. Blanche calculated the engineering measurements for the causeways and dams built on the ponds surrounding the mansion. The Ames Mansion was constructed on the site of the Currivan farmhouse, which are composed of larger stones and are slightly square. The stonewall running along the original entrance easterly, now a service driveway, continued across the lawn on the south side of the Mansion. Oakes and Blanche Ames using some of the field stones in the construction of the Mansion. Stonewalls in the other parcels were a rougher and round stone configuration. In 1910, the construction of the Mansion started with the library being constructed in 1912. Blanche and Oaks, who wanted a fireproof house, became displeased with the work of their architect because of the challenges he faced with their design and engineering requirements. Dismissing the architect, Blanche took over the design and construction management of the mansion and hired the Concrete Engineering Company to draw plans according to her specifications. In 1920, records show living at 257 Massapoag Avenue were Oakes, a professor of botany, and his wife, Blanche B. Ames, an artist in her own home, with their two daughters, Pauline, Evelyn, their two sons, Amyas, and Oliver Ames, with six servants and two chauffeurs. Blanche Ames calculated the engineering measurements for the causeways and dams built on the ponds surrounding the mansion. Once the mansion was completed, Blanche set up a full-size studio on the third floor of the house and maintained a workshop in which she and her brother, Adelbert Ames, developed a scientific color system for mixing paints. Blanche became the sole illustrator of her husband’s botanical books, including a seven-volume treatise on orchids. Oaks Ames was a renowned authority on orchids and taught botany at Harvard from 1900 until his retirement in 1941. The rear of the Mansion had the tennis courts, rolling hill towards the fields and pool. The Mansion at Borderland featured landscaping around the immediate grounds. In 1930, records show living at 257 Massapoag Avenue were Oakes, a professor of botanist at Harvard, and his wife, Blanche B. Ames, an artist in her Iron Studio, with their daughter, Evelyn, their two sons, Amyas, and Oliver Ames, assistant manager at the Ames Shovel and Tool Company, Inc., with two servants. Plantings around the house include shrubs and shade trees and perennial flowers. A vegetable garden was located to the west of the house. The garden was bordered by raspberry bushes running along the tree line of the fields. Oaks and Blanche created a system of ponds and dams throughout their estate. The sculpted hedge along the circular drive was destroyed in the Blizzard of 1978, which was restored at the direction of Pauline Plimpton, Oakes’ daughter. A formal rock garden, designed by Oakes Ames, was built to the north of the house, complete with stone paths, steps, and benches. In the 1970s, under the direction of Oakes and Blanche’s grandson, T. P. Plimpton, the rock garden was reconstructed with some of the original flowering trees. These include flowering crab trees, dogwoods, lilac, forsythia, and burning bush. The reconstruction was a recreation of the historic planting plan by Oakes Ames. In the center of the rock garden is a wooden trellis set on granite columns, on which climbs Borderlands Great Wisteria. The circulation system of the Ames estate also remains intact, including the circular drive in front of the Mansion and several unpaved roads throughout the former estate. Oakes Ames was the youngest son of Governor Oliver and Anna C. Ames and was well known for his botanist and orchid expertise. At the age of fifteen, Oakes took an interest in orchids while studying in Easton on the origin of plant life in different regions or times. Following his graduation from Harvard in 1898, Oakes started the Ames Botanical Laboratory at Harvard, becoming a world-known center for the study of orchids and economic botany. In 1900, Oakes Ames started teaching in the field of botany at Harvard. Later, Oakes became Research Professor and Director of the Botanical Museum until his retirement in 1941.Blanche Ames, a scientific illustrator provided the illustrations for her husband’s book on orchids. Records show Blanche Ames Ames, was a multi-talented inventor and illustrator, who was involved in art, farming, engineering and politics. Blanche Ames was a suffragist, an early advocate of birth control, and late in life Blanche wrote a biography of her father, Adelbert Ames. Blanche Ames was interested in farming working with the staff of the Borderland estate and devised plans for developing a larger, more disease-resistant turkey. Blanche was the co-founder of the Birth Control League of Massachusetts and the Treasurer of the League of Women Voters from 1915 to 1918. Blanche was well known for her political cartoons depicting the struggle for women’s suffrage. In 1939, records show Blanche, an inventor designed a hexagonal lumber cutter. In 1940, living at 257 Massapoag Avenue were Oakes, a professor of botany, and his wife, Blanche B. Ames, with a son, Oliver Ames, a trustee, and one housekeeper. During World War II, records show Blanche Ames designed, tested and patented a method for ensnaring enemy airplanes in wires hung from balloons. It must be noted in history that Blanche Ames painted every painting in the mansion with one exception. In 1969, records show Blanche Ames received a patent for a water anti-pollution device, a year before her passing. Borderlands grounds were used in Massachusetts State Lottery commercials that showed men playing croquet on the lawn. Born in New York City in 1927, George Plimpton, son of Pauline Ames Plimpton, who was the daughter of Oakes and Blanche Ames, spent summers during his childhood at Borderland. Records show George had a sister, Sarah Gay Plimpton, two brothers, Francis Taylor Pearsons Plimpton Jr. and Oakes Ames Plimpton. During the formative years of Borderland becoming a state park, Oakes Plimpton was a frequent visitor to the park noting the progress from an estate to a passive state park. George Plimpton, co-founder of the Paris Review, was known for his efforts in sports with the Detroit LIons in "Paper Lions," Boston Bruins in "Open Net," Willie Mays in "Out of My League," pro golf in "Bogey Man," and fought Archie Moore and Sugar Ray Robinson for articles in the Sports Illustrated. George was a classmate at Harvard University of Robert Kennedy and helped get the gun away from Sirhan Sirhan when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968, a television documentary about Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was filmed in the library of the Ames mansion. When Blanche Ames passed away in 1969, records show she left the 1,782-acre estate to her four children, who sold the property to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1971."
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source; Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Conservation and Recreation
source; Borderland State Park
source: History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
source: Easton’s Neighborhoods, Edmund C. Hands, 1995
source; Massachusetts Historical Commission
source: Easton Patch, Michael Hardman, May 16, 2013
Bay Road
The Bay road, according to tradition, was first located on an old Indian trail. However this may be, it is spoken of in 1697 in the Taunton North-Purchase records as the new Rhode that leadeth from John Witherell’s to the bay. John Witherell lived in Norton, south of Easton, and the "bay " was Massachusetts Bay. This road, therefore, is about two hundred years old, and is probably the oldest within the limits of the town. There is no record of its first laying-out, which does not appear to have been done by the North-Purchase proprietors. the southern part of it were made in 1735. In March, 1754, as it was becoming an important highway, it was laid out forty feet wide through the town.
source: Massachusetts Historical Commission
.
Such was the Bay road of other days. The fact has been noted that it was laid out forty feet wide through the town in 1754. But this road originally was not well made ; and so many persons outside of Easton were interested in it that we are not surprised to find that more than once Easton is admonished by the Superior Court, and obliged to pay a fine, "by reason of the badness of their roads." In January, 1771, they paid a fine of ten pounds. This waked up the town. Money was raised to repair the road. In 1772 a section of it near Summer Street was straightened. But by 1797 "the town of Easton is under pre- enactment of the Grand Jury for the County of Bristol by Information of the Supreme Court of the Deficiency of the Northward part of the Highway called the Bay road ; " and June 16, 1797, Abisha Leach and Seth Littlefield made a careful survey of it from the Stoughton line to Furnace Village. A committee was chosen to act for the town in court, and the road was put in repair. But only one hundred and twenty-six dollars were expended, and consequently complaint was soon made again, and the town had to answer the summons of the Supreme Court at Taunton, in 1803, for its neglect to repair the "Post Road." Three hundred dollars were spent this year for repairs on it. In 1812 the same trouble occurred again. The town had to appear by its agent in court, and on the next year a fine was imposed for neglect. Evidently the town considered it a burden to keep a road in repair that was so much used by nonresidents.
source, History of Easton, William L. Chaffin, 1886
