Ice house (building)

For mobile structure used in ice fishing, see ice shanty.

An ice house or icehouse is a building used to store ice throughout the year, commonly used prior to the invention of the refrigerator. Some were underground chambers, usually man-made, located near natural sources of winter ice, such as freshwater lakes, but many were buildings with various types of insulation.

During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from lakes or rivers, 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 the summer months.

The main application of ice was food preservation, but it could also be used to cool drinks or to prepare desserts such as ice cream and sorbet. During the heyday of the ice trade, a typical commercial ice house would store 2,700 tonnes (3,000 short tons) of ice in a 9-by-30-metre (30 by 100 ft) and 14-metre-high (45 ft) building.

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