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ice_house

Ice House, c. 1842

By Cathy Callopy

An ice house was a must-have for any farm and being located so close to the Ohio River made it rather easy to collect ice in the winter months. Although the river may not have frozen completely over every winter, there were often chunks of ice floating downriver in January and February, allowing local farmers and others to collect the ice and store it for the winter months. After being cut in blocks, the ice would have been placed in the stone-walled cellar underneath this building. Layers of ice would be insulated from warm summer temperatures by layers of sawdust or straw. Because it was dirty, this ice was not put into drinks as we do today; containers of lemonade or tea were placed on ice to chill them. The wooden floor of the ice house can be raised up to allow someone to pull the ice out. The spring wagon and pony cart that is here now would not have been stored here one hundred and fifty years ago.

ice_house.txt · Last modified: 2020/11/03 18:42 by 127.0.0.1