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An ancient ice house, called a yakhchal, built in Kerman, Iran during the middle ages, for storing ice during summers.

Boboli Gardens, Florence: domed icehouse (ghiacciaia) half-sunk into a shaded slope

Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the invention of the refrigerator. The most common designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to natural sources of winter ice such as freshwater lakes.

During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice house and packed with insulation, often straw or sawdust. It would remain frozen for many months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a source of ice during summer months. The main application of the ice was the storage of perishable foods, but it could also be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared.

[edit] History

An inscription from 1700 BC in northwest Iraq records the construction of an icehouse, "which never before had any king built." In China, archaeologists have found remains of ice pits from the seventh century BC, and references suggest they were in use before 1100 BC. Alexander the Great around 300 BC stored snow in pits dug for that purpose. In Rome in the third century AD, snow was imported from the mountains, stored in straw-covered pits, and sold from snow shops. The ice formed in the bottom of the pits sold at a higher price than the snow on top.^[1]

[edit] In the U.S.

Ice houses allowed a trade in ice that was a major part of the early economy of the New England region of the United States, which saw fortunes made by people who shipped ice in straw-packed ships to the southern U.S. and throughout the Caribbean Sea. In winter months, ice was chopped from a lake surface and often dragged by sledge to the ice house, and in summer months, was delivered from local ice houses to residences in ice wagons or ice trucks, where it would be stored in an ice box, which was used much like a modern refrigerator.

A c. 1930 commercial icehouse near Ambler's Texaco Station in Dwight, Illinois, USA

As home and business refrigeration became more common, ice houses disappeared. The home ice delivery business declined, and was virtually gone by the late 1960s. Smaller ice houses, usually no more than a sawdust pile covered by a makeshift roof or tarpaulin, continued to be maintained to store ice for use in local events such as fairs. Today, most ice for daily consumption is made in a home freezer, while bulk ice is manufactured, distributed and sold like other retail commodities.

In Texas, former ice houses are a cultural tradition, with many now converted into open-air bars. In the region of Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country, the word "icehouse" has become a colloquialism for an establishment that derives the majority of its income from the sale of cold beer, particularly such locally produced labels as Shiner Bock, Pearl, or Lone Star. ^[2]

The Ice House is a common name for ice hockey rinks in the U.S.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In the U.K.

The ice house entrance, Eglinton Country Park

The fishpond at Eglinton Country Park was created to supply ice for the ice house.

Ice was often imported into the UK from Scandinavia up until the 1950s. Usually only large manor houses had purpose-built buildings to store ice. Many examples of ice houses exist in the UK some of which have fallen into a poor state of repair. Good examples of 19th-century ice houses can be found at Ashton Court, Bristol, Grendon, Warwickshire, and at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, Suffolk, Moggerhanger Park, Bedfordshire Petworth House, Sussex, Danny House, Sussex, Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding, Rufford Abbey, and Eglinton Country Park in Scotland and Parlington Hall in Yorkshire.

Stocking an ice house.

The typical British ice house was an underground chamber, usually man-made. It was usual to construct an ice house close to a source of winter ice, for example freshwater lakes or slow-flowing streams or rivers; this allowed ice to be collected when water had frozen over in winter and quickly transport it for storage in the ice house. To keep the ice frozen, doors or openings were usually built facing north and straw or sawdust was added between layers of ice to act as insulation. The ice would stay frozen for many months, and would be used to preserve and chill food all year round.

The ice house was introduced to Britain around 1660 and were commonly brick lined, domed structures, with most of their volume underground. Ice houses varied in design depending on the date and builder, but were mainly conical or rounded at the bottom to hold melted ice. They usually had a drain to take away any water. It is recorded that the idea for ice houses was brought to Britain by travellers who had seen similar arrangements in Italy, where peasants collected ice from the mountains and used it to keep food fresh inside caves.^[3]

Game larders and venison larders were sometimes marked on ordnance survey maps as ice houses.

Bruce Walker, an expert on Scottish vernacular buildings, has suggested that the relatively numerous and usually long ruined ice houses on country estates have led to Scotland's many legends of secret tunnels. The appearance of ice house entrances lends itself to the unitiated making such deductions, seeing as how ice houses are found in ha-ha walls, house and stable basements, woodland banks, open fields, etc.^[4]

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Icehouses

• Deep lake water cooling
• Icehouse at Ambler's Texaco Gas Station
• Frederic Tudor, the "Ice King"
• Yakhchal

[edit] References