Icebox Origins & Early Refrigeration

By Susan Marschalk Green ~

The next time you open your refrigerator and stand there contemplating the appeal of its contents, you might also consider that this move probably would have landed you in big trouble in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Why? Because ice was a precious commodity in the days before residential electrical service became a ubiquitous source of power for not only lights but also convenience appliances like modern refrigerators.

A three-compartment vintage wooden icebox occupies the corner of a dining room — This vintage icebox belonging to Joyce and Donald Hutto graces the dining room of their Alabama home. Photo by Susan Green.

The first refrigerators were insulated, compartmentalized units sometimes called “iceboxes.” Keeping them closed helped prevent frozen chunks of water from quickly melting, thus preserving perishable food for as long as possible. What’s more, the faster the ice melted, the more frequent the need to empty the metal drip pan that lurked below the box to capture the drainage. In many households, the daily task of dumping the drip pan fell to children. A full pan was apt to be spilled on the way to its designated dumping spot, and woe to the child whose neglect of duty allowed the pan to overflow onto the kitchen floor!

Where did that precious ice come from?

As early as the 1700s, enterprising Northern landowners whose property included a lake or pond harvested big blocks of frozen water during the winter. This ice could be covered with straw or sawdust and stored in ice pits, where it was used to preserve meat, fruit and vegetables. Often, the landowner with a frozen water source would sell ice to wealthy families who built insulated structures known as ice houses to protect a wide variety of food against spoiling.

In 1802, a farmer named Thomas Moore invented the first icebox and later received a patent signed by then-President Thomas Jefferson – who quickly became a customer and purchased one for himself. Moore was also handy at cabinet-making, and his initial creation was an oval-shaped cedar box with a tin chamber inside. He insulated the outside of the box with rabbit fur.

Moore’s invention paved the way for a brisk trade in natural ice, first capitalized on by Boston businessman Frederick Tudor. In 1815, Tudor built a large ice depot in Havana, Cuba, capable of storing up to 150 tons of ice that had been harvested in 300-pound blocks from frozen lakes and ponds. The depot served as a hub from which Tudor could ship ice to homes and businesses throughout the southern U.S. and eventually to ports across the globe.

Direction label from inside of the ice compartment door on a vintage refrigerator. — This label on the inside of the ice compartment door advises the owner to “take out the ice grate often and thoroughly cleanse as you would a milk pan.” (Susan Green photo.)

As the U.S. population swelled, so did Americans’ need for ice as a food preservative, and several inventors turned their attention to making artificial ice for this purpose. However, it was a Florida physician’s desire to provide cool air for patients in the throes of yellow fever—not preserve food–that led to the first patented mechanical ice-making machine in the U.S. John Gorrie, who was practicing medicine in Apalachicola, began building an ice-manufacturing machine in the 1840s and eventually secured a patent in 1851. Gorrie, who is considered a pioneer in the field of air conditioning as well as mechanical refrigeration, sought financing to perfect and market his invention but died in 1955 without finding the backers he needed.

Not far behind Gorrie in terms of ice machine development was Connecticut native Alexander Twining. In 1853, he patented a way of manufacturing artificial ice and was trying to market his invention in the South when the Civil War disrupted his efforts. To make matters worse, from Twining’s standpoint, the war disrupted the natural ice trade and created a shortage that prompted Southern inventors to develop manufactured ice to fill the void.

After the Civil War ended, the fabled “iceman” became a familiar and welcome sight throughout the country. Horses pulled wagons filled with big blocks of ice for delivery at homes and businesses. Later, the ice came by truck. Customers signaled their desire for ice by placing a card in a window facing the street. Burly men would chip off chunks of ice to order – usually 25 to 100 pounds – seize it with giant tongs and lug it into the customer’s kitchen or pantry, where it would be deposited in an insulated icebox for safekeeping.

In their heyday, icemen had no shortage of deliveries to make. A large block of ice might last up to a week, depending on how well insulated the icebox was, the temperature of the kitchen and how often family members opened the icebox to chip off portions for iced tea. This meant every home in an iceman’s territory typically placed several orders a month.

Iced out by the modern refrigerator

The iceman claimed a relatively short span of history, as electric refrigerators began replacing insulated iceboxes in the 1930s. For the most part, ice deliveries had become a distant memory by the late 1950s, when a majority of Americans had modern refrigerators – usually emblazoned with the brand name of Frigidaire – in their homes. In a few areas of the country, ice deliveries continued into the 1960s.

At the same time that modern refrigerators were creating an existential threat to the iceman, they also spelled doom for another popular face in home delivery: the milkman. Some historians say the first nail in the coffin for daily doorstep deliveries of milk in glass bottles – once commonplace – was the proliferation of Frigidaire appliances in American kitchens. Having a reliable cooling box handy in the home meant housewives no longer had to worry that fresh milk wouldn’t retain its welcome flavor for more than a day or so.

To be sure, the rise of supermarkets that offered the convenience of buying milk, eggs, produce and meat all in one place also helped put an end to many home delivery services. But those supermarkets developed, in part, because modern refrigeration made it possible to preserve a wealth of perishable food for sale.

‘Ice age’ relics remain

A block ice store built in Pensacola in 1932 uses stucco to make the building look like ice. — This drive-up block ice store built in 1932 still stands in Pensacola, Fla., a relic of the days when homeowners depended on iceboxes to preserve food. Photo from MyFlorida.com.

Perhaps the most famous legacy of the ice delivery period was Eugene O’Neill’s acclaimed dramatic play, “The Iceman Cometh,” in which the icon of the pre-refrigeration era is referenced but never seen.

But consumer demand for ice before mechanical refrigeration also spawned some colorful marketing tactics, including three drive-up ice dealerships in Pensacola, Florida, that used stucco “icicles” to make the buildings look frozen. The brainchild of the Crystal Ice Co., one of the stores, built in 1932, survives and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983.

Visitors can also see a life-sized model of John Gorrie’s first ice machine at the Gorrie Museum in Apalachicola. And, of course, many old-time ice chests and iceboxes occupy homes and antique outlets, often providing conversation pieces as well as storage of dry goods or other products that require no refrigeration.