Icehouse

History

The term icehouse, or ice house, as dictionary definitions make clear, refers to a structure for preserving ice year round and for keeping food and beverages cool during the warm months. Icehouses ranged in scale from small outbuildings for domestic use to larger warehouse-sized buildings designed for the commercial ice-harvesting industry.1 In the context of American landscape design, domestic icehouses were often incorporated into the overall plan of an estate. While functional requirements dictated below-ground construction, the visible parts of the structure were often designed to enhance ornamental aspects of the grounds.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the construction of icehouses generally followed the European tradition. An underground pit was excavated, in the shape of an inverted cone, and then covered by a mound or a structure whose exterior walls took a variety of shapes. The angled walls of the pit, such as those depicted in a profile drawing published in William Ranlett’s The Architect (1851), helped to keep the ice densely packed as it was loaded into the pit and subsequently to keep the ice a solid mass, even as it melted. Because, as Robert Morris (1784) noted, “the closer it is packed the bet[ter i]t keeps,” it was important to design icehouses with openings large enough to pack the ice solidly. Commercial icehouses needed to deliver closely packed blocks of ice throughout the warm seasons, but residential icehouses more often preserved ice to cool the air for food preservation and occasional ice chipping. In this domestic context, the strategy was to try to pack as solid a mass as possible by breaking the ice into pieces and ramming it into place. Since dampness was the greatest impediment to the preservation of ice, drains or other means of conducting runoff usually were built into the base of these structures. In addition, straw mats or sawdust were added to insulate the ice from sun and drafts, as described by George Washington and J. S. Williams (1823) and illustrated by J. B. Bordley in his Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs (1801).2

The structure covering the pit took a variety of forms and materials. The feature ranged from a simple earthen mound, seen in Samuel McIntire’s sketches of the ice cellar at Pleasant Hill in Charlestown, Mass. [Fig. 1], to the more elaborate ornamental styles that harmonized with larger landscape design. For instance, at Montpelier, Thomas Jefferson designed a neoclassical temple to cover the subterranean icehouse, a style that echoed the architecture of the nearby main house [Fig. 2]. During the nineteenth century, icehouses were designed in a variety of architectural styles to complement landscape design, as illustrated in designs for ornamental icehouses published in the Horticulturalist in 1846 [Fig. 3]. Most icehouses also contained antechambers, vaults, or superstructures where food, such as meat and dairy products, were stored.

J. S. Williams, in an 1823 letter to the editor of the New England Farmer, detailed the construction and advantages of an “ice closet” attached to his icehouse. This separate area used the air cooled by the ice to preserve food and was recommended for those who did not have a spring house (which provided a common way to keep food cool) or those who wanted to avoid the musty flavor of meat laid directly on the ice. In other cases, such as J. B. Bordley’s section of an icehouse published in an appendix to Richard Parkinson’s A Tour in America (1805) [Fig. 4], the structure consisted only of an ice pit with no storage area.

In the eighteenth century a private ice-house was something of a luxury for a homeowner, as suggested by the relative scarcity of examples in sources other than treatises. Prior to 1800 most families preserved their food by drying, smoking, and salting, or by storing it in cold cellars, spring houses, and dairies. Private icehouses were constructed principally by wealthy plantation or estate owners. Other icehouses were built by proprietors of taverns, public gardens, and other eating and drinking establishments, such as Joseph Delacroix’s Ice-House Garden (later Vauxhall Garden) in New York. These icehouses, in addition to preserving food, made it possible to serve iced drinks, desserts, and ice cream. Several advertisements of tavern sales prominently listed an icehouse with other assets. In at least one instance, in Raleigh, N.C., in 1820, a vendor of ice cream, punch, and lemonade referred to his entire establishment as an “icehouse.” In 1811, Rev. William Bentley commented upon the growth in the Salem, Mass. area, of such pleasure establishments, many of which he noted had icehouses. He wrote, “The places of amusement are so much multiplied that the season is not long enough to give them all one visit. The principal places are at Orne’s point at the Villa, at the Hotels . . . at Spring Pond . . . at Nahant & Philip’s beach, besides as many little places for humble folk to crawl in all directions.”3

It was not until the first half of the nineteenth century that icehouses became common for residences, and then mainly for rural sites beyond the reach of commercial suppliers. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, proponents, such as Frederic Tudor (1806), began to argue the merits of aboveground icehouses with no underground pits; they were cheaper to build, easier to load, unload, and ventilate, and they were equally effective in preserving ice. Above-ground icehouses became the standard for larger-scale icehouses associated with communities, such as those of the Shakers, and also with the growing commercial industry. This increase in the availability of commercially produced ice, at least in heavily settled areas, is exemplified by comments in the New England Farmer (1835) about increasing ice consumption. The increase in icehouse construction was also due to changes in the 1830s and 1840s in the American diet, which included more fresh meats and vegetables.4

Icehouses were sited in relation to a combination of factors, including accessibility to the kitchen, proximity to an ice source, a location on an elevated and potentially well-drained place, and aesthetics. Thomas Moore, in an 1803 essay about icehouse construction, suggested placing one’s icehouse on the north face of a hill, preferably sheltered from prevailing winds. At Gen. Charles Ridgely’s estate, Hampton, in Baltimore, and Montpelier, the icehouse was placed on the north side of a gentle incline, near the front door of the main house. In each case the potential visual intrusion of the icehouse was minimized. At Hampton, it was covered by an earthen mound; at Montpelier, it was surmounted by a domed temple. In other cases the icehouse was incorporated more subtly into the landscape design [Fig. 5]. The ice-house pictured in the Horticulturist was sited in a densely planted area and dressed in a rustic picturesque so that it blended into the naturalistic landscape.

-- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid