What is it like to live in Easton?
Ed Hands, an Easton resident since 1962, remembers when his town was little more than a farming outpost south of Boston. He spent his summers as a teenager working with his father at HARCO Orchards.
“When we first moved, we lived on one of the farm properties, and there were chickens all around us,” said Hands, now 68. “Next door was a dairy farm, and there was a farm down the street, but those are gone now; they’re all housing developments.”
“There has been an explosion of population, and more recently, a rebirth of agriculture,” he said, citing the opening of Langwater Farm and The Farmer’s Daughter restaurant, which gets its ingredients from local farms.
Hands, however, decided early on that farming wasn’t for him, so he attended Bridgewater State College and went into education, working as a social studies and video production teacher for 44 years, the final 19 at Easton’s Oliver Ames High School, named for the state’s 35th governor and a lifelong resident.
Hands, who retired in June, serves as vice president of Easton’s Historical Society, running programs at Ames Free Library, where he highlights the town’s role in the Industrial Revolution, its explosion in population as a post-World War II suburb, and the friendly rivalry between the north and south sections.
Nowadays, Easton’s roughly 23,000 residents live in a desirable community that still contains elements from Hands’s childhood. Borderland State Park and Langwater Farm showcase the area’s natural beauty, and the sleepy center boasts historic sites like Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. Hands appreciates the way other buildings have been preserved, such as the Ames Shovel Works, which was converted into apartments in 2013.
When asked about the biggest change in Easton since he first moved there 54 years ago, Hands was brief:
“Less cows, more people.”
BY THE NUMBERS
60
The percentage of the world’s shovels produced by Easton’s Ames Shovel Works in 1879. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 helped boost the company into such a national power that its shovels were used as “legal tender’’ on the frontier. The factory (above) is now apartments.
1910
The year the 20-room Ames Mansion was built in what is now Borderland State Park. Constructed for noted suffragist Blanche Ames and her husband, Oakes, the property is periodically open for tours and has a legendary sledding hill.
193
The consecutive years there was at least one person named Oliver Ames living in Easton (1815-2007). The first Oliver Ames reaped a fortune from his shovel business and served two stints as a Massachusetts state representative and one as a state senator.
2,400
The number of full-time undergraduates at Stonehill College, a Catholic liberal arts school
PROS & CONS
Pro
Youth sports
Easton’s lineup includes baseball, softball, soccer, basketball, football, lacrosse, and cheerleading. There’s also a town pool and the YMCA. Thanksgiving is celebrated with a football game against archrival Sharon, a tradition since 1970. The Recreation Department offers kayaking, ultimate Frisbee, and tee ball, among other activities.
Con
Entertainment options
If you want to catch a movie, head to the mall, or go bowling, you’ll have to head out of town. The Children’s Museum is great, but there are limited options for millennials.
Jon Mael is a freelance writer based in Sharon. He can be reached at [email protected].
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com