Now Demolished, This Ice Factory in Oklahoma Operated for over 80 Years
Southern Ice and Cold Storage Company, Pittsburg Oklahoma
- Categories:
- Oklahoma
- Industrial
The Southern Ice plant in Pittsburg, Oklahoma, was constructed in 1900 and remained in operation into the 1980s, producing 25 to 30 tons of ice daily. It supplied ice for all of Pittsburg County and the nearby towns of Ada and Muckogee. It was the only remaining ice plant in southeast Oklahoma that was in operation year round.
Most of the equipment and methods remained in use until the factory closed.
This one-story natural stone building was used for the production of ice for over 80 years. The light colored stone building has a string course of white stone about five feet from the roof. This is its only exterior decoration. The roof itself is flat. One large service door and one smaller door are at the front of the building. The front wall is also pierced by three lower windows and several upper windows that are vented. A large picture window interrupts the front wall where the office is located.
On the eastern end of the building front is a self-serve ice station.
The interior of the building is almost entirely original. The office is all wood with large windows facing the working area and a large wooden counter beneath them.
The office, formerly on the second floor, was moved to the ground floor in the 1930s.
The ice is produced in the largest room of the building. This room has wooden sections that are easily removed from the floor. Beneath the planks is a large tank wrapped in a steel frame and sectioned off into compartments the size of the ice blocks.
Water is fed directly into these sections, which are cooled to produce the ice. The ice is removed from these compartments by hand, with the aid of a hoist, and moved to a refrigeration room where the large blocks are scored and broken into the sizes sold commercially. This room has original walls, floors, refrigeration pipes, and scoring machine.
The other large room houses the compressors. This engine room contains four ammonia compressors and the air compressors used in the production of the ice. A 1915 Frick Company gage monitors the compressors. Most equipment in the building was at least 80 years old. The major exceptions are two of the compressors, which were replaced in the 1970s.
The building has since been demolished.
Building front (1979)
Interior: Gage (1979)
Interior: Compressors (1979)
Interior: Flooring (1979)
Interior: Machinery (1979)
