AMES, John Worthington (1871-1954), active in Boston, Mass., was commissioned to design two major residential works in Rockcliffe Park at Ottawa, Ontario. The largest and most prominent was the complete rebuilding of the mansion for Norman Wilson (c. 1926), which is now used by the Vatican Government as a Papal Nunciature or diplomatic mission of the Holy See (in essence, an embassy). In 1934, Ames was again commissioned to design another Canadian project, and to create “Byng House”, a large residence modeled on the Chateau Ramesay in Montreal, and now used as the residence of the Ambassador of Israel.
Ames was born in in Burlington, Iowa on 17 June 1871 and educated at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. 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 (E.A. Delaire, Les Architectes eleves de l’Ecole des Beaux Arts 1793-1907, 1907, 159). 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 17 December 1954 (obituary New York Times [New York], 18 December 1954, 15; Boston Herald, 18 Dec. 1954, 5; biography and port. in National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. li, 1969, 456-57)
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., residence for Jeremiah Smith Jr., Acadia Road near Champlain Road, 1915 (J. Leroux & T. Holownia, St. Andrews Architecture 1604-1966, 2010, Item 125, illus.)
OTTAWA, ONT., “Manor House”, a major rebuilding of existing house, with additions, for Norman Wilson, Manor Avenue, c. 1926, and now used as the Vatican Papal Nunciature (C.H.G., x, June 1933, 23-26, illus. & descrip.; Martha Edmond, Rockcliffe Park, 2005, 205-06, illus.; Andrew Waldron, Exploring the Capital: An Architectural Guide to the Ottawa-Gatineau Region, 2017, 130-1, illus. & descrip.)
OTTAWA, ONT., “Byng House”, a residence for Col. Henry Willis-O’Connor, Lansdowne Road North, on the west side of McKay Lake, 1934 (Martha Edmond, Rockcliffe Park, 2005, 214-15, illus.)