when Dallas had ice delivered

Editor’s Note: Take a look back at the Dallas Morning News Archives.

These days, most North Texas residents in need of ice cream can walk to their freezer and press a button or just grab a bag at the local supermarket.

But over a century ago, before these modern conveniences, the Dallasites relied on daily ice cream deliveries as the only way to preserve food and chilled drinks.

Take a look back at the Dallas Morning News archives to find out how ice cream shipments once kept Dallas cool.

The American Ice House Building at 309 N. Malcolm X Blvd. was built in the early 1890s and was the headquarters of William J. Lemps St. Louis Beer in Dallas. By 1923, Texas had 321 ice and cold stores across the state.(JM Colville)

Before ice cream was local

The city of Dallas was unable to naturally produce its own ice cream for most of the 19th century. Instead, ice was typically shipped to the region after being harvested from frozen lakes in New England. The ice was then stored in local ice houses and distributed to customers on a daily basis. At the time, it was the only way for Dallasites to get ice on a regular basis.

By the 1890s, ice companies in Dallas and across the country had begun using commercial refrigeration machines to keep their natural ice frozen, as well as making artificial ice. Ice cream men who work in Dallas ice houses use insulators to pack the ice up like sawdust to keep it from melting. It was then loaded onto wagons and delivered to consumers.

An icy business

Ice cream storage and production became a thriving industry for local businesses.

One organization, the Dallas Ice Factory and Cold Storage Co. on Field Street, was “the largest ice-making facility in the south,” according to The News of Jan. 25, 1891. An ice house could produce over 100 tons of ice per day and increased investment in ice companies made Dallas a major ice distribution point for northern Texas.

A Southland Corp. ice cream delivery truck. from the early 1920s that replaced the mule-drawn carriages.(The Dallas Morning News)

Log ice tics

The logistics of the ice trade were particularly sensitive to the weather. A high demand in combination with a low supply, especially on hot days, sometimes led to “ice hunger”. According to The Dallas Herald, Dallas supporters almost saw one in September 1881, so much so “that the vans did not make their regular rounds.” The News reported on July 7, 1890 that because of the summer heat that year in conjunction with flake ice machines, consumer prices rose 30 percent and the ice had to be “shipped from the north” to keep up with demand.

Ice deliveries weren’t just a summer phenomenon. Local ice cream delivery companies transported ice cream to customers every day. Dallas’ City Ice Delivery Co. advertised their services “fall and winter” promoting their year-round service.

A certain amount of ice melt was to be expected during a delivery, which was even built into their economic model. According to The News of July 8, 1911, a manager at a Fort Worth ice factory found that the average block of ice at delivery weighed about 315 pounds, allowing 15 pounds to be melted. The news reported that in 1911 Fort Worth wagons were delivering an average of 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of ice to residents per day.

By 1923, Texas had 321 ice and cold stores across the state, producing approximately 15,265 tons of ice per day. That was enough to provide every Texan with 6 pounds of ice a day. As reported in The News of July 26, 1923, Burt C. Blanton, manager of the industrial division of the Texas Chamber of Commerce, found that the entire state of Texas used 2,000,000 tons of ice annually.

‘A thing of utility and beauty …’

A refrigerator around 1920, one of the earliest models of the refrigerator inventor Frigidaire.(Business connection)

For years after its introduction in the 1870s, mechanical refrigeration that could create artificial ice was only intended for businesses that could afford it. It was viewed as too bulky and too expensive for the average consumer. But by the 1920s, having an electric refrigerator in an average household was within reach.

The first consumer models were simply cooling mechanisms built into existing ice boxes. Cabinet refrigerators as we know them were later introduced. Although the electric refrigerator was originally marketed as a luxury item, it was a cost-saving investment when compared to supplying ice cream.

Advertisements for refrigerators highlighted how they could make their own ice cream that was even colder than the ice cream man bought from the ice cream. “Electricity has won its crowning household victory,” it says in an advertisement. In response, ice cream makers argued that their ice cream was cleaner and less susceptible to bacteria.

The practicality of the electric refrigerator was taken for granted and ice delivery was increasingly viewed as inconvenient and unsanitary. The news admonished readers to clean their ice cream thoroughly upon receipt. When the Ice Man was sweeping sawdust off the ice, readers were asked to check the broom used, as well as the ice man’s hands. If her block of ice was dragged across the sidewalk collecting dirt, “just wash and care properly” would be safe to drink. The ability to keep food constantly cold and make ice cream clean at home made the electric refrigerator the preferred option.

Southland Ice Co. employee John Green – around 1927 – began storing eggs, milk and bread to sell to his ice cream customers, effectively creating the first convenience store. Southland would eventually be 7-eleven.(The Dallas Morning News)

Melting Ice Age (delivery time)

Consumers and businesses alike recognized the benefits of electric cooling, and by 1948 the heyday of ice cream suppliers was over. That year, The Southland Corp. in Dallas became the city’s largest ice cream company and operated one of the few city-wide ice-cream delivery services that remained. By 1950, according to Gavin Weightman in his book The Frozen-Water Trade, 90% of Americans in cities and 80% of Americans in rural areas had a refrigerator.

Company consolidations in the 1950s also meant the end of ice cream shipments in Dallas. In 1952 the Republic Ice Co. of Dallas sold its ice cream van fleets, and in 1956 Southland bought Paramount Ice Co., one year after the purchase of Southern Henke Ice Co. of Houston.

Yet the legacy of the ice cream delivery company in Dallas can still be seen today. Joe C. Thompson and John “Uncle Johnny” Green of Southland Ice Co. are credited with selling food from Dallas ice houses. These ice cream stores were converted into convenience stores called Tote’m Stores, which were later renamed 7-Eleven. Reddy Ice, also headquartered in Dallas, was once a division of Southland Corp. and is the largest packaged ice cream maker in the United States.

Would you like to learn more about the local history? Subscribe to the Dallas Morning News at dallasnews.com/archives.

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