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Vintage spaces with a cool history
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COUR < I ED I \\ OLTRS MEMORIAL MUSEUM, 1NSTI E O TLXAN l \ I i
ubes of ice clink brightly in
a tall tumbler of iced tea.
Ahhh, what a refreshing
sound! The cold chills your
hand, and a nippy sip pene-
trates your very core.
Frozen water-so simple, yet so
taken for granted. It conquers a sizzling
day like water extinguishes fire. But
what if there was no ice to tame the dog
days of summer? That was indeed the
sweltering reality in most of the Lone
Star State 150 years ago.
In the days before refrigerators, local icehouses o
in town. The plants supplied businesses with ice a
1913 photograph shows the interior of the Shiner
Hellbent on creating cold, 19th-
Century inventors in Texas helped lead
the world into a new ice age. These men
of ice proved that, even along the
steamy Gulf Coast, folks could have a
cold drink year round and, more impor-
tantly, preserve perishables at home
and en route to distant markets.
Before the mid-1800s, the only ice in
offered the coldest-and the "hottest"-commodity
nd sold blocks of ice for home iceboxes. This
Creamery & Ice Manufacturing Plant in Shiner.
Texas (except during winter) came from
the northern United States. Cut from
frozen lakes and rivers, then transported
on sailing ships to ports like Galves-
ton, this natural ice helped preserve
food for a growing coastal population.
Inland, most families survived on food
preserved by age-old methods-dry-
ing, smoking, salt-curing, and pickling.
Texas Highways
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