Ames Manufacturing Company

Ames Manufacturing Company

Ames Privilege
Location Chicopee, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°8′57″N 72°36′24″W / 42.14917°N 72.60667°W / 42.14917; -72.60667Coordinates: 42°8′57″N 72°36′24″W / 42.14917°N 72.60667°W / 42.14917; -72.60667
Built 1847
Architect McClallan, Charles
Architectural style Early Republic, Greek Revival, Other
NRHP Reference #

83000734

[1]
Added to NRHP June 23, 1983

Ames Manufacturing Company was a manufacturer of swords, tools and cutlery in Chicopee, Massachusetts, as well as an iron and bronze foundry. They were a major provider of side arms, swords, light artillery, and heavy ordnance for the Union in the Civil War. They also forged a number of bronze statuary which can be found throughout New England.

Company history

Undated woodcut.

The Ames Manufacturing Company has its origins in a factory established in 1774 in Chelmsford, Massachusetts by the Ames family. Brothers Nathan P. Ames, Jr. and James T. Ames moved their tool and cutlery business to a new industrial town on the Chicopee River near Springfield, Massachusetts in 1829.[2] They were invited by Edmund Dwight, who owned textile mills nearby.[2] The Ames company soon moved to manufacturing swords for the federal government and state militias.[2]

As the town of Chicopee was formed in 1848, the Ames brothers were leaders in the new community.[2] Upon the death of Nathan P. Ames in 1847, ownership of the company turned to younger brother James Tyler Ames.[2]

Iron and bronze foundries

The Ames foundry mark can be seen on Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue

By 1835, the company was creating works in brass and bronze, and in 1845, an iron foundry was added.[2] The company used the foundries for casting statuary as well for producing as military cannons and cannonballs.[2]

The bronze doors of the East Wing of the United States Capitol and Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue at the Lexington-Concord bridge were cast at the Ames company.[2] Other statues included large equestrian statues of George Washington (at the Boston Public Garden and in Washington, D.C.), a statue of Benjamin Franklin (Boston), and a statue of Major John Mason.

When the Mexican War came, the foundry's primary output switched to armament.[2]

Civil War

Upon the secession of the South, the Union lost access to their southern arsenals. Therefore, independent arms manufacturers were crucial to the success of the Union army.[2] Ames was one of the Union’s most important manufacturers of side arms, swords, and light artillery, and the third largest producer of heavy ordnance.[2]

Post-war diversification and decline

This foundry mark, on a Civil War memorial in Attleboro, Massachusetts, indicates that Ames Foundries were acquired by the Spalding company.

In addition to producing military equipment for many years, including (in addition to swords) cannons, cannonballs, it also produced sewing machine and bicycle parts in the later 19th century. The company was a major supplier of bicycles to the Overman Wheel Company from 1883-1887.[3]

The sword manufacturing business was formally separated into an independent company in 1881.[4]

By 1907, the Ames foundries had been purchased by Chicopee's A.G. Spalding Company.[5]

Surviving buildings

The historic Ames Company factory, located at 5-7 Springfield Street in Chicopee, Massachusetts, is a complex of connected industrial buildings, the oldest of which date to 1847. Most of the older elements are brick in construction, and range in height from one to four stories. This complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1] The largest surviving buildings have been converted into residences.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Lynch, Jacqueline T. (3 March 2009). "The Ames Manufacturing Company - Civil War and the New England Mill Town". New England Travels. Originally published in North and South Magazine June 2006. Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Jendrysik, Stephen. "Stephen Jendrysik: Victor bicycle rode economic rise, fall". Masslive.com. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  4. ↑ "MACRIS inventory record for Ames Manufacturing Company". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2015-09-21.
  5. ↑ Williams, David (17 January 1907). New England Machinery Market (Volume 79 ed.). The Iron Age. p. 227. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
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