Ice House

Ice House. . In the days before refrigerators, passing by this Ice House conjured up visions of ice cream or iced tea. What little child couldn't visualize cold homemade ice cream on a hot summer's day? And what adult, who had been working hard outside and swigging luke-warm water from a jar, couldn't wait to get back to the house at dinner time to drink a cold glass of tea made from ice chipped off a block? Texas summers can be brutal without the luxuries of air conditioning or refrigerators. There was no such thing as "Cold" in the summer until technology prevailed, unless it was one of Glen Rose's famous springs and artesian wells., Ice was manufactured elsewhere and brought to this little stone house in huge blocks of perhaps 50 or 100 pounds. Sawdust or straw insulated around the blocks; an old quilt or gunny sack provided insulation for the trip home. Depending on the size of an ice box in the kitchen, one of these blocks fit nicely in there to preserve milk, butter, and cooked food. This one innovation helped keep people from getting sick from nearly-spoiled food., In the early days of Glen Rose, community picnics were held in the park near the mill. Vendors of lemonade put blocks of ice in washtubs with the lemonade and hawked their product: "Ice cold lemonade! Made in th' shade - stirred with a spade! Good enough for any old maid!" cost: 5 cents per cup. And the cup was rinsed in cold water and used by the next customer! As someone said, "That was the days before germs!"