The article below was published 94 years ago this month. My notes are in square brackets [ ] . Ice harvesting from the Hudson River used to be an important business in the local area. In New Baltimore, Greene Co., just barely south of the Albany Co., they used to cut the ice from the river and store it in wooden buildings that lacked windows. When refrigerators reduced the need for river ice, the buildings were converted for use in the growth of indoor mushrooms. Cliff Lamere ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Albany Evening Journal, February 20, 1915, pg 5 ICE HOUSES IN THIS VICINITY WELL FILLED ------ Dealers in New York and Albany Confident They Can Meet Demands -- Schodack Landing's Big Storage. ------ Ice dealers in Albany and New York say that there is little need to worry about next summer's supply. Those in Albany and vicinity who cut from ponds and still water have been able to get their usual supply with a prospect of adding more before the winter ends. The dealers who cut on the river have not been so fortunate. Some In this city have not been able to secure a crop; others who cut at Castleton and down the river points have done better. ln New York it is expected that the shortage in the Hudson river crop will be made up from Maine and other places. The makers of artificial ice will also come to the rescue and the shortage will thus be eliminated. A dispatch from Schodack Landing says that ice dealers in that vicinity believe the season is practically over. At a conference held yesterday, William I. Gardenier of Gardenier & Sons, and James Scott of the National Ice company were of the same opinion. Each company has secured about 50,000 tons, while the Knickerbocker company's house here has about half that amount. Edward McCabe has 20,000 ton, mostly held over from last year, which makes a grand total of nearly 150,000 tons housed on Schoharie [sic] creek. Houses on the main river have very little. [Schoharie creek should be Schodack creek which "is a tidal channel which separates the islands from the mainland, on which stands the community of Schodack Landing." Source: "Historical and Archeological Resources of Castleton Island State Park, Towns of Stuyvesant, Columbia County, New Baltimore, Greene County, and Schodack, Rensselaer County, New York: A Preliminary Phase I Cultural Resources Assessment" by Paul R. Huey, May 1997] http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/edocs/parks/castleto.htm ] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cliff, Interesting article about ice. I was a child in the 1930s, growing up on a farm in Selkirk, about halfway between Albany and New Baltimore, and among the outbuildings on our place was an ice house, as well as a smoke house and a wood house, all of which I remember as just storage although when I was very small we still had a refrigerator with real ice. There was a large rectangular pond at Kenwood that I understood had been used earlier to cut ice from, at the end of the city bus line, where my mother used to sometimes meet me when I was in high school in Albany and missed the regular bus -- or maybe there had been ice houses there, because why would they use a pond with the river right there? Jane ----- Original Message -----