Untitled Document

How the town was named

Our town was laid out, owned and named by the Blair Land Company, an affiliate of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad. The company's chief engineer, John I. Blair met Oakes Ames, a State Representative from Massachusetts in 1863, when Mr. Ames' interest in the expansion of the railroad brought him to the Midwest . They traveled together choosing sites for stream crossings and possible station stops and became good friends. A year later, the flat lowlands between the Skunk River and Squaw Creek were named " Ames ." The town was incorporated in 1869 and its first mayor was Mr. William West.

First School

The town's first school, Bloomington School , was built around 1855. The school consisted of grades 1-8. It was situated a half mile west of the present National Animal Disease Center . Bloomington School closed after the end of World War II.

First Church

In 1865, before the town was incorporated, a group of eight people met with a young minister by the name of Reverend John White, who had recently come to Ames from Connecticut . Those pioneer folks were eagerly receptive to White's encouragement and leadership and were determined that there must be an established church in town. Thus, the first church built in Ames , the Congregational Church, was built on the northeast corner of Sixth and Kellogg Streets. It was dedicated on October 7, 1866.

Great Progress in 1915-1916

Since 1885, the Iowa State College campus had a small hospital where Dr. David Fairchild, an Ames physician, cared for students and faculty, but there was no formal hospital facilities for Ames ' citizens. That all changed when Captain Wallace M. Greeley, an Ames banker, lost his wife to illness and decided to build a hospital in her memory. The hospital, Mary Greeley Medical Center , was dedicated to the community on September 24, 1916.

On August 6, 1915, Ames celebrated the laying of the cornerstone for a new city hall at Kellogg and Fifth. Also this year, the Masonic Building and the Sheldon-Munn Hotel were built, and a major expansion of the City Light Plant was under construction.

In 1915, Ames had only two paved streets, Main Street and Grand Avenue . Kellogg and Burnett were paved that year after a campaign for a "decent hitching place where the women from the country would not have to wade ankle-deep in mud and filth in order to hitch their dreams."

Iowa State College

The state had established a "model farm and agricultural college" that was once described in college literature as "being located on a beautiful farm two miles west of the village of Ames ." The Iowa State campus had not originally been in Ames until it was annexed on January 2, 1893. Ames was totally identified with the college. The primary source of water and sewer services in west Ames was provided by facilities on the Iowa State campus. Soon after 1897, when the Marston water tower was built, limited capacity water lines were extended off campus to the south and west. As late as 1923 there were still fraternity and sorority houses located in downtown Ames . By 1916, Boone Street , which had become Lincoln Way two years earlier, was beginning to expand. A livery barn and service was at the location where the Ames Theater is today. A grocery store was in existence near the Welch Avenue corner.

Around 1924, the city put a water tower near the corner of Sheldon and Hunt Streets. That facility, combined with a pumping station at the Squaw Creek bridge, brought added water service to meet the growing population of Ames .

Ames is currently home to 50,731 citizens, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

===========================

f rom

AMES , the early years in word and pictures

by Farwell T. Brown

Used with permission.