#2The Ice House
107 E. Doty Street
Listen to the Audio
The Ice House
The Summerville Ice and Cold Storage Company was established at the Ice House in 1903, replacing sea shipments of ice cut from frozen northern water sources. The ice company became the main supplier of ice for the homes and inns of Summerville after 1900. The company merged with the town’s power and light company in 1909.
The Ice house
• The Summerville Ice and Cold Storage Company was established in 1903; officers were Thomas Lebby, David Miller and Milton P. Skinner
• A state-of-the-art 15 ton ice-maker was installed at the ice house. The facility expanded a few years later with a boiler and generator, making its power source independent.
• Prior to this enterprise, ice was supplied locally by sea shipment of ice cut from frozen, winter-time New England fresh water sources.
• Ships carried ice in their holds, wrapped in burlap and insulated with sawdust to Charleston. It was then transported to the Summerville depot for horse-drawn wagon delivery.
• Ice was then stored in “ice boxes.”
• The ice company became the main supplier of ice for the homes and inns of Summerville after 1900. The company merged with the town’s power and light company in 1909.
• M.P Skinner was only an active participant for a few years. By 1920, he was living at Yellowstone National Park, serving as the first NPS naturalist.
Milton P. Skinner (1879-1963)
• Milton Skinner of New York was a teenager working in Yellowstone on the park roads before the turn of the century.
• He was 24 years old with a B.S. in Chemistry when he founded the Summerville Ice and Cold Storage Company with two partners in 1903.
• He married in 1906 and built for his bride, Clara, the grand home which today is the site of the Cummins Seminary on S. Main Street.
• In 1916, the SC state legislature granted a permit to “MP Skinner of Summerville to take birds and their eggs.” He was a resident of Wyoming in the 1920 U.S. Census, living with his mother.
• Today, Milton Skinner is famous at Yellowstone. He became the first recognized “Naturalist” in the US National Parks System.
• Clara Skinner died in 1957 at Jamestown, N.Y.; Milton Philo Skinner died in 1963 in California.
