A Place of Sense

These days we take fresh food for granted, but keeping food refrigerated was a difficult prospect until the middle of the 20th century. Harvesting ice was an important industry everywhere in the world. Ice was saved for the summertime in icehouses. To make use of the ice to cool food, an icebox was employed. This pre-cursor to the modern refrigerator had several drawbacks, but mainly a melting block of ice that had to replaced constantly and usually left a large mess.

When clean surface water sources began to get scarce, technology came to the rescue. Industrial refrigeration technology allowed for artificial freezing of water. This meant ice could be produced in a factory setting right in the communities where it was needed. People quickly realized the benefits of this and thousands of ice factories all across the U.S. were in operation near the turn of the 20th century. Home ice production was not feasible until a safe and reliable process was developed (starting circa 1916), but eventually home production spelled the end of the ice factories.

Ice factories played a vital role in American city development, helping cities to sever the link between food production and food consumption (for better or worse). As these important structures were fading into obscurity around mid-century, the Historic American Building Survey program was able to catch some of them in action. The best example is the Milford Ice and Coal Company in Delaware (built 1893).

Milford Ice & Coal Company – a modern ice factory

Our own icehouse had a very similar process to the original system used here. Fresh water was fed from a water tank up high (the tower) into steel tanks surrounded by chilled refrigerant.

The block of ice is sliced into smaller sizes and ready for delivery

A finely detailed plan

There are modern HABS floor plans and elevations on the website. It’s not the most user friendly website, but HABS is a great resource. They have historic photos of just about every kind of structure you can imagine. Just like any academic/library search, you should expect to come up with a lot of synonyms in order to find what you are really looking for.

Champion Ice & Fuel Company

(1884)

Last week I met an interesting artist, Ginny Taylor Rosner, who specializes in capturing images of the interiors of historic (or not) buildings that are on the brink of collapse or loss. By focusing her attention on these spaces she hopes to bring about a wider awareness of condemned properties and the important roles they have had in local communities. I couldn’t find a website but she did have a page on the stutz artists association. Also here.

On that page there is a great shot of the Grande Greenhouse that used to be on Rockville Road in Avon. It was a really fun building and I was sad to see it go. Just think of how many other structures she can preserve for us, at least in a 2-dimensional way.

The exteriors of just about every building is photographed at some point, but the interiors are different. The fact that these are condemned or collapsing buildings means that setting up a fancy photo shoot with high-powered lights is impossible. She uses the natural light available in the space to truly capture what it looks like, and that may involve long exposure times. Basically, it ain’t easy what she does, and she does it well.

She worked hard to get photos of the interior of the Market Square Arena before demolition, you can see one of them in the card above. It’s not easy going against the wishes of the local authority, especially after the other preservation groups have already given up. She is a hard worker, she is committed to what she does, and she’s a nice person too. If any of you come across a structure that you think may deserve this treatment, I would recommend you contact her.