ice Archives - OLD LINE PLATE

Next time you drop a few ice cubes into a cold beverage think of this: many early-20th-century consumers would be wary of your “artificial” ice. Unless of course, your ice happens to be harvested from a lake or a mountain somewhere.

The technology to create ice from water was first developed in the mid-1800s, but it caught on slowly. The ice trade continued to collect ice from natural stores and ship it around the country.

It’s no surprise that manufactured ice might scare consumers. Think of how strange it must have seemed. As always, industry had to sway the public. The Maryland Ice Company took out an ad in the Baltimore Sun in 1892 declaring that “manufactured ice is not only purer, but will last longer and produce equally as much cold as ‘natural ice.”

Apparently, this was still a concern in 1923 when an American Ice company ad in the Evening Sun explained to readers that “American Ice is… made from filtered water and frozen in sanitary plants,” and that it was “very real, absolutely pure Ice.” The ad stated that American Ice had nine plants in Baltimore “all making clean, pure, healthful ice.”

Of all the casualties of the car-centric highway age of Baltimore, perhaps the reduction in neighborhood snowball stands looms the largest on sweaty summer strolls through town. The ice cream trucks are great but… just not the same.

When in 1977 the Baltimore Sun ran one of their many annual celebrations of the beloved summer treat, they estimated “perhaps 1000” snowball stands operating in the city – about one for every 822 people.

Although the 2012 SnoBaltimore map never claimed to be comprehensive – snowball stands these days are often ephemeral or hard to pin down – the number was closer to one snowball stand for every 4500 residents (locations in the county included due to my laziness.)

Aside from the lack of foot traffic necessary to do a bustling streetside trade in snowballs, sporadic health-code enforcements may have dampened business a bit. There were at least four stands within a square block of 25th and Greenmount, the Sun reported in 1977, and it was “a very profitable business.”

These days, snowballs may generate less profit, but certainly no less enthusiasm. The 1977 article continued a long tradition of venerating the snowball as a part of Baltimore summers. A search through the archive will confirm that at least the tradition of *writing* about snowballs is alive and well.

Baltimore Sun, August 1972

Tag: ice

Lemon Ice Box Pie, Mrs. Harry C. Michael

Sno-ball Flavorings, 1912

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