 The house bears the name of Winslow Ames, a professor of art history at Connecticut College and the art director of the Lyman Allyn Museum. In 1933, Ames decided to construct two houses on the museum-owned property after seeing prefabricated homes at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. Ames had a strong interest in the Modernism movement and believed such houses would become predominant. The Ames house cost $ 7,500, similar to other McLaughlin houses from 1933 and 1934, which ranged from $ 3,500 to $ 7,500 each. Later, Ames and his family would briefly take up residence in the house. The other house, known as the "House at 130 Mohegan Avenue" would be added the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
