"Kensington Hygeia Ice Co." (1895), Hexamer #2836.
Kensington Hygeia Ice Company, 1895
Trenton Avenue and Huntington Street, Philadelphia PA 19125 (northwest corner)
© Carmen A. Weber, Irving
Kosmin, and Muriel Kirkpatrick, Workshop of the World (Oliver
Evans Press, 1990).
As with many business
ventures of its time, the Kensington Hygeia Ice Company
was begun as a corporate venture in 1895; in fact, one of
the company's vice presidents was Albert Frederick
Schoenhut, President and General Manager of the
A. Schoenhut Toy Piano Works. 1
The plant was
constructed along the Trenton Avenue spur of the
Pennsylvania Railroad at Huntingdon Street. The company
operated well into the twentieth century, consistently
employing about 30 people. 2
Two buildings remain from the complex. The three story,
five bay building at the corner of Trenton Avenue and
Huntingdon Street has brick pilasters and copper
ornamentation on the facade and cornice. The building's
pediment holds a plaque that has been obscured by stucco.
The three story, four bay building with brick pilasters
at 2187 Huntingdon Street was once connected to the main
building.
When in operation, the corner building held one ice
machine with a 60 ton capacity. Powered by steam, the
machine used an ammonia condenser to convert filtered
well water into ice. The smaller building on Huntingdon
Street was for ice storage; an office and wagon shed once
stood between the two buildings. The freezing tank room
was in a two story building adjoining the rear of the
wagon shed; this building has also been
demolished. 3
At present, the building appears abandoned.
1 Philip Scranton and
Walter Licht, Work
Sights: Industrial Philadelphia, 1890-1950
(Philadelphia,
1986), p. 84.
2 Depart of Labor and
Industry, Pennsylvania, Second
Industrial Directory of Pennsylvania
, (Harrisburg,
1916); and Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade,
Philadelphia, Industrial
Directory of Philadelphia: Data for 1943
, (Philadelphia,
1944).
3 Hexamer General Insurance Survey #2836
(1895), "Kensington Hygeia Ice
Co."
Update May
2007 (by
Torben Jenk):
Demolished. Replaced by an addition to the multi-block
complex stretching up to Lehigh used by Charles Jacquin
et Cie to distill liquors and spirits, as they have in
Philadelphia since 1884.