Ice house

Ice houses were buildings used to store ice throughout the year, prior to the development of the refrigerator. The most frequent designs involved underground chambers, usually man-made, which were built close to normal sources of chill ice such as freshwater lakes. During the winter, ice and snow would be taken into the ice home and packed with padding, often straw or sawdust. It would stay frozen for lots of months, often until the following winter, and could be used as a foundation of ice during summer months. This could be used simply to cool drinks, or allow ice-cream and sorbet desserts to be prepared.