North Easton Historic District

North Easton is a village of about 500 acres in Easton, Massachusetts, shaped almost entirely by the Ames family, makers of shovels and tools. Industrial and transportation buildings form its core. Around them lie an inner belt of workers' housing, smaller homes, and civic and commercial buildings, and an outer belt of large family estates. The district holds about 160 noteworthy and supportive buildings, ranging from simple Cape Cod cottages and Greek Revival workers' houses to architect-designed mansions, churches, a library, a school and a post office. Five buildings were designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, including the library, Memorial Hall and the railroad station. Frederick Law Olmsted designed landscapes for several of them and for four of the Ames estates. The district was recognized for the unusual quality of its architecture, landscape design and town plan, and for remaining essentially unchanged since the early twentieth century, apart from the closing of the Ames industry.