The Vintage Icebox

Audrey has been helping her parents move into a house in High River from their acreage just south of town. The new place is a little smaller, so a few things are without a place in the new home. One of them is this amazing old icebox refrigerator that Audrey was allowed to bring to our house.

Her folks found it at an antique store about ten years back or so. It is a beefy piece, as you can see here, and has displaced the red storage bench we had close to the front door.

The thickness of the doors demonstrates how tremendously well-insulated this icebox is. It used a big block of ice (or perhaps a container of smaller chunks) to keep food from spoiling for up to a week, as far we can guess.

And unless I miss my guess, the Arctic Ice Company shown on this plate dates back to 1882 and got their start carving blocks of ice out of Lake Winnipeg. They delivered ice to homes right up until 1954 when electric refrigeration became the norm. Instead of disappearing though, they seem to have evolved into Arctic Glacier, whose ice you can still buy at the supermarket today.

The instruction panel is still largely intact; it refers to this device as a refrigerator but I still prefer icebox for the clarity and old-timeyness of it. The label makes it sound like you would only need to clean this item out every week or so.

The ice would go in the compartment on the left, a drip pan behind the bottom door on the left, and the shelves on the right are where you could rack your perishables.

Mostly though, I just love the richness of the wood grain, the precision of the carving work and the immaculate condition of the piece. I guessed the icebox to be from the 1920s or thereabouts, but Audrey's mum thinks it might actually date back to the late 1800s, which fits with what I think I know about the company.

Audrey wanted to put a runner across the top for protection, but I begged her not to - there is so much character in those grooves!

It is much cooler than the wooden storage bench we had in that spot previously. The fact that it will also hold even more stuff out of the way is a bonus! We are very grateful to Audrey's parents for the opportunity to host such a nice-looking appliance from around a century ago.