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From: "J DOT Henry Priebe Jr DOT " root AT bluemoon DOT net
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:48:29 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE: (erielack) Re: (erielack )Marion Ice house/Yard
"Marion-CityIceAndFuel1919-1949.jpg" - image/jpeg, 2000x391 (24bit)

On Tue, 21 Dec 2010 Bradley Butcher typed:

>
> Well I will come back with what I have found out. The ice house still
> appears on the Conrail ZTS map from 1984 so Obviously the building survived
> for a long while. Most likely one of those cases where it cost money to tear
> down and was easier to leave alone since no one was beating the door down
> for the land. Surprising is one of the responses I did get seems to indicate
> that the ice house was made of wood. Since I'm a youngen born in 1972 the
> only ice house I have seen personally was the old Union Pacific one in
> Council Bluffs. Which was a very large concrete or plastered over brick
> structure.

Was the Marion ice house approximately one mile west of the roundhouse on the
south side of the yard?

On a 1929 Sanborn map I found a large ice house labeled as "The City Ice &
Fuel Co" with a long loading platform adjacent to the Erie tracks. On the
index map it is referred to as the "Hornell Ice & Cold Storage Co" and
"(T. H. I. & C. S. Co.)" appears on the map page on both sides of the ice
house and "(H. I. & C. S. Co.) appears on there as well. Hornell Ice & Cold
Storage Co built the Erie's ice plant at Hornell (1912), naturally, and in the
July to December 1913 issue of "Ice and Refrigeration Illustrated" Volume 45,
there is a news item stating "Marion - The Hornell Ice & Cold Storage Co. are
building a new 150-ton ice making plant, contract for machinery, including
boilers and plant complete, having been let to the Ice & Cold Machine Co., St.
Louis, Mo." I can find very lilttle about Hornell Ice & Cold Storage on the
web. Does anyone know if it was in any way affiliated with the Erie? It was
still in existence in December on 1940 as it was involved in a "capital stock
tax" lawsuit.

The ruins of the site are still visible in Google Earth and it appears to have
been long gone in an April 6, 1994 aerial photo.

The Marion Hornell Ice And Cold Storage Co site was also apparently the focus
of some kind of "Asbestos Jobsite" crusade, one of many that an asbestos
related mesothelioma ambulance chasing firm is still targeting.

As an aside, it was reported in the Andover News that the Hornell Ice & Cold
Storage built EL Hornell ice house, abandoned since September of 1966, burned
early in the morning on Friday, May 17, 1968. At least a portion of the ice
plant was in the process of being demolished when it was destroyed by fire.
This was reported in the Andover News because Andover Ponds ice had been
stored there and used for icebox delivery in the area.

A Sanborn map snippet from some time between 1929 and 1949 (the page says
1929, but it is supposedly updated to 1949) is attached.

Henry

J. Henry Priebe Jr. Blue Moon Internet Corp Network Administrator
www.bluemoon.net Internet Access & Web Hosting
www.railfan.net Railfan Network Services


Marion-CityIceAndFuel1919-1949.jpg

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