The Ames Gate Lodge is a celebrated work by American architect Henry Hobson Richardson.

It forms a long, low mass lying directly athwart the estate's entry road, which runs southward within its dominating, semicircular arch.

The massive walls appear to be crude heaps of rounded boulders from the estate soil -- "cyclopean rubble" in Vincent Scully's memorable phrase—trimmed in Longmeadow brownstone.

The blocky, two-story lodge proper stands west of the arch, and originally housed the estate gardener on the lower floor with rooms for bachelor guests above.

Across the arch is a long, low wing ending in a circular bay, once used for storing plants through the winter.