05/16/2026
Ice houses were necessities in Bethlehem until the late-1930s when the Rural Electrification Act was passed.
Bird Pond supplied ice required by Bethlehem families and ice harvesting was an important enterprise. Families would purchase large blocks of ice, arrange them in their ice houses, and cover the ice with shavings or sawdust to delay the melting process. The ice lasted a very long time often never being completely melted when fresh ice was added the following winter. Products that needed cold to prevent spoilage were stored in ice houses and chunks of ice were taken from the ice houses to be used in smaller containers near household kitchens. The term 'ice box' still used by some people today was exactly that, a box in which a chunk of ice was placed to provide household refrigeration.
In the mid-1930s the United States was suffering the effects of the Great Depression. Congress, recognizing the plight of rural America, passed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 bringing electricity out to towns such as Bethlehem. Electrical refrigeration began to take hold and the ice houses became a thing of the past.
The museum has a display in the basement containing many ice harvesting tools.
