John W. Ames

Biographical InformationJohn Worthington Ames was an American architect, based in Boston. He was born in Iowa and was later educated at Harvard University where he graduated in 1892. He began his professional career as a draftsman with the prominent New York firm of McKim, Mead & White, then moved to Paris to attend the Ecole des Beaux Arts where he trained in the atelier of Victor Laloux, completing his studies there in 1897.

After returning to Boston in 1898, he practiced under his own name until 1914, then formed a partnership with Edwin S. Dodge (as Ames & Dodge). His best known projects in the United States include dormitory buildings at Radcliffe College and Smith College, and buildings on the campus of Bennington College and Simmons College. Ames retired in 1939 and later died in New York City on December 17, 1954. A scholarship in his name was created at the Boston Architectural College in 1955 by his wife, Sarah Ripley Thayer.
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John W. Ames