MacAlpine Icehouse

MacAlpine Icehouse (HM280M)

Location: University Park, MD 20782 Prince George's County
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Country: United States of America
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N 38° 58.176', W 76° 56.252'

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Inscription

Town of Riverdale Park

You are standing near the remains of a 19th century icehouse.
What is an icehouse? An icehouse is an underground facility designed to store ice during times of year when it is not easily available. Icehouses use the natural insulating qualities of the earth to store ice harvested from freshwater rivers and lakes, or ice manufactured by electrically powered factories. The MacAlpine Icehouse consists of a brick-lined pit approximately 25 feet deep and 20 feet in diameter; its above-ground wooden cover is now gone. The icehouse preserved within this modern masonry structure was built by the Calvert family in the late 1860s to store ice for their farm, MacAlpine. This ice house is one of only three surviving examples in Prince George's County.

Specialist firms in northern climates harvested and shipped ice by railroad and steamship to southern states like Maryland. Manufacturers patented, built, and sold ice boxes to city dwellers while farmers and rural households purchased large quantities of ice for long-term storage in icehouses. Government-supported rural electrification programs begun in the 1930s rendered the need for traditional icehouses, like this one, obsolete.
Details
HM NumberHM280M
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Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, June 1st, 2018 at 10:03am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18S E 332147 N 4315188
Decimal Degrees38.96960000, -76.93753333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 38° 58.176', W 76° 56.252'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds38° 58' 10.56" N, 76° 56' 15.12" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)240, 301, 410, 202
Which side of the road?Marker is on the right when traveling East
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 4440 Van Buren St, University Park MD 20782, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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