Oakes Ames Memorial Hall

Oakes Ames Memorial Hall Designed by famous architect H.H. Richardson in the late 1800s, the Hall is a National Historic Landmark

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The FourthFred was a reserved man of great intelligence with a highly discipline...
09/08/2026

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The Fourth

Fred was a reserved man of great intelligence with a highly disciplined mind and a keen business sense. He was also a Renaissance man.

Fred’s legacy is all around us. He created what we see now as North Easton Village. With the help of Richardson, Olmsted, La Farge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Augustus St. Gaudens, the wood carver Johannes Kirchmeyer, and architect and cousin John Ames Mitchell, he transformed North Easton from a mill town into an American Renaissance village.

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The FourthFred’s death put that project on hold. Only two buildings were ever bu...
09/06/2026

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The Fourth

Fred’s death put that project on hold. Only two buildings were ever built. You can still see one of them, the red brick Tudor style apartment building with a crenellated cornice at the northwest corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Memorial Drive. It is an MIT dormitory. Ames and Vassar Streets, along with portions of Danforth, Endicott, and Fowler Streets survive today. In 1916, the Frederick L. Ames Real Estate Trust sold the fifty-acre parcel for $5 million to George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, who donated the land to MIT for its new Cambridge campus. In 1900, the trust built the Colonial Theatre on Boylston Street in Boston.

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The FourthDuring the early hours of September 13th, 1893, somewhere between Fall...
09/04/2026

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The Fourth

During the early hours of September 13th, 1893, somewhere between Fall River and New York City, Fred died of a stroke in his stateroom aboard the vessel Pilgrim of the Old Colony Steamship Line. Fred was treasurer of the line. The news was a cause for concern on Wall Street. The stock market in the fall of 1893 was in a precarious position. The Union Pacific, with Fred as its largest stockholder, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and there was some concern that Fred’s untimely death would force his family to sell his stock, flooding the market and depressing UP stock to the point of forcing bankruptcy and causing a market crash. There was also the matter of his large holdings in General Electric. By the end of the day on the 13th, the Dow Jones Industrial did fall, but there was no crash. The family had assured the Wall Street financiers that they had no plans to sell his stock to settle the estate. His wealth was valued by the New York Times at 25 to 35 million dollars, making him a billionaire in today’s dollars.

From curious to hooked, mahjong is definitely catching on at the Hall! A game with centuries of history, mahjong combine...
09/03/2026

From curious to hooked, mahjong is definitely catching on at the Hall! A game with centuries of history, mahjong combines strategy, skill, and a little bit of luck as players build sets of tiles, make decisions, and keep an eye on what everyone else is doing around the table.

And from the looks on these faces, players are having a very good time doing it! There’s plenty of conversation, plenty of laughter and, we suspect, just a little friendly competition mixed in.

Open play at the Hall on Thursdays from 6–9pm. The cost is $20 and includes everything you need and a light snack to boot!

If you’ve been curious about mahjong, now’s your chance to learn. Instructor Holly is offering beginner classes at her home in a relaxed, welcoming setting—perfect for getting the basics down before joining the group at the Hall. Come discover what all the buzz is about! To register or learn more, contact Holly at 508-572-6180.

Yoga can be about more than stretching and strengthening. It can also be a way to slow down, reconnect with your body, a...
09/02/2026

Yoga can be about more than stretching and strengthening. It can also be a way to slow down, reconnect with your body, and find a little calm when life feels overwhelming.

Join trauma-informed yoga instructor Andrea Hobkirk-Magararu for a healing hour designed to reduce stress and anxiety, calm the nervous system, and introduce simple techniques to help ease feelings of panic and distress in the body.

Andrea brings years of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness meditation to women in crisis, creating a supportive, gentle environment where you can simply breathe, move, and be present.

🧘 $25 per session. Begins Wed., Sept. 23 at 6pm
💧 Please bring your own mat and water

Come as you are. Leave with a little more calm. Register: [email protected]. Venmo: -Hobkirk

See the Hall through an artist’s eyes.This fall, artist and longtime Brockton Public Schools art teacher Linda Fargo bri...
09/02/2026

See the Hall through an artist’s eyes.

This fall, artist and longtime Brockton Public Schools art teacher Linda Fargo brings a new watercolor class to Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. With more than 30 years of teaching experience and a studio at The Sandpaper Factory in Rockland, Linda is an award-winning artist who has exhibited throughout the South Shore. While watercolor will be the focus of this class, students who prefer oil, acrylic, or another medium are welcome to work with what they know.

The Hall itself will be the subject. Classes will begin with a brief introduction to perspective drawing before heading outside to sketch and paint this beautiful H.H. Richardson landmark. Materials are not provided, but a suggested supply list is available. Weather may occasionally require adjustments once classes move outdoors.

Tuesdays & Thursdays beginning September 15
9:30–11:00 AM
$20 per class

Come learn, look a little closer, and see the Hall in a whole new way! Contact Linda at: [email protected] to register and for the supply list.

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The FourthLater in life, he decided that railroads did not provide the best oppo...
08/31/2026

Excerpt from The First Three Freds — by The Fourth

Later in life, he decided that railroads did not provide the best opportunity for making money, and began to shift his focus to real estate investing. He amassed a six-million-dollar portfolio of Boston real estate, making him the largest landowner in the city. His holdings were exclusively warehouses and commercial office buildings, which included the Ames Building at One Court Street, the tallest building in Boston, where he had his office.

Stonehill Industrial Collections archivist Greg Galer uncovered documents concerning Fred’s proposed twenty-five-block residential development in Cambridge on the banks of the Charles River across from the Back Bay. It was laid out in a similar grid, complete with streets named in alphabetical order. The Back Bay’s Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, and Dartmouth Streets would be Ames, Bradford, Claflin, and Danforth Streets in Cambridge.

Yoga can be about more than stretching and strengthening. It can also be a way to slow down, reconnect with your body, a...
08/27/2026

Yoga can be about more than stretching and strengthening. It can also be a way to slow down, reconnect with your body, and find a little calm when life feels overwhelming.

Join trauma-informed yoga instructor Andrea Hobkirk-Magararu for a healing hour designed to reduce stress and anxiety, calm the nervous system, and introduce simple techniques to help ease feelings of panic and distress in the body.

Andrea brings years of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness meditation to women in crisis, creating a supportive, gentle environment where you can simply breathe, move, and be present.

🧘 $25 per session, beginning Wednesday, September 23 at 6pm
💧 Please bring your own mat and water

Come as you are. Leave with a little more calm. Register at: [email protected]

Address

3 Barrows Street
North Easton, MA
02356

Telephone

+15082389995

Website

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