Sherborn’s Ice House

Created by Jan Burruss

Farm Pond Ice Field

Before refrigerators were found in every home, ice was used to keep food and drinks cold. Early iceboxes were large, insulated boxes that held ice cakes and were used to store cooled foods and drinks.

Ice Harvesting and Clark’s Ice House

Clark's Ice House, though no longer standing, was an important old business in town. It stood on Lake Street where the road comes closest to the water. The clear ice was “farmed” or cut from Farm Pond, or Farm Lake, as it was called in the 19th century. Clark's ice was in great demand from the middle of the 1800s until the 1930s.

The original ice house was built by Joseph Walter Barber. In the late 1800s, George Henry Clark, a Sherborn resident, bought the ice house and some land around it. Besides selling ice out of town, the Clark boys delivered ice daily in Sherborn through the warm weather.

As the demand for this clear, clean ice increased, Mr. Clark gradually enlarged the size of the ice house. The house itself was sort of a box within a box. Between the two boxes, a 12-inch space was filled with sawdust as insulation.

Ice Harvesting and Clark’s Ice House

Ice cutting began in late December when the ice was 10-12 inches thick and cold weather was predicted ahead. First, the ice field had to be marked off. Starting close to shore, lines about one inch deep were cut to divide the ice into perfect squares. An ice plow was then used to go over these lines several times until the markings were a few inches deep. At that point, hand saws were used to finish cutting out the cakes of ice. Each ice cake measured 32 inches by 22 inches by 12 inches and weighed about 250 to 275 pounds.

Ice Harvesting and Clark’s Ice House

To move the ice off the frozen lake, a box-like structure was put over two ice cubes at a time. A long, wire cable ran through a pulley fastened on shore. Horses pulled the cable, and the ice blocks came up the “run” and into the ice house. When the top layer of ice neared the roof, meadow hay was piled on thick to help insulate the ice.

In the beginning the ice cutting was done by hand and required from 15 to 18 men, who were paid about $2.00 a day. Later, the number of men was reduced, when a Kurtz gas-powered ice plow, weighing about 600 pounds, was used to power a 32-inch circular saw. A winch replaced the horses.

Ice Harvesting and Clark’s Ice House

On July 3, 1910, a young man from out of town set fire to the ice house. He was found, and he confessed. His father paid Mr. Clark $6,000 to build a new building. The new structure was built in three sections, each 50 feet by 20 feet and 20 feet high. The cement foundations of this structure can still be seen today.

One day in January 1925, a big section of ice gave way and six horses fell into twelve feet of water. The men were able rescue all the horses by holding the horses' heads above water and by cutting the harness and other entanglements. Then they cut a channel through the ice to the shore. Although one man fell in the icy water during the rescue, all the people and animals were safely brought to shore in the end.

In the 1930s, the Clarks bought artificial ice from sources out of town, and stored it in the ice house. As electric refrigerators became more numerous in Sherborn, the Clarks stopped all operations. In 1938, the old ice house collapsed in the hurricane, and the property was sold.