The American Ice Company is a historic
ice manufacturing plant located at 2100 West Franklin Street in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was d ...
,
Maryland,
United States. It is a large industrial brick building designed by Mortimer & Company and constructed by Fidelity Construction in 1910-11
for the American Ice Company, a business that manufactured and delivered ice throughout the
Mid-Atlantic and
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
. The building is two stories, with the brick laid in American bond, and is 21 bays long. Three of those bays at one end of the building are slightly projected and topped by a stepped parapet, forming the entrance area of the building.
[, including undated photo, at Maryland Historical Trust]
Baltimore American Ice, which had acquired American Ice in the 1960s, had switched mainly to the production of bagged ice for businesses and dry ice for industrial clients by the 1980s.
A two-alarm fire at Baltimore American Ice heavily damaged the rear of the facility in May 2001, and in early 2004, Baltimore American Ice closed the West Franklin Street factory.
A more extensive fire that destroyed the more recent additions to the dry ice plant and caused severe damage to a corner of the original circa 1911 factory occurred on March 2, 2004.
The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 2013.
Partial demolition and construction of a new mixed-use event space, restaurant, concert venue, artist incubator, and community facility was set to begin in July 2019, with projected completion by Summer 2020. The project was never started or finished, and as recent as 2022 the property was up for lease, auction, or sale by several real estate companies locally in Baltimore. Currently the site remains empty and untouched.
See also
*
American Ice Company Baltimore Plant No. 2
*
List of ice companies
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in West and Southwest Baltimore
References
External links
American Ice Companyat Abandoned
American Ice Companyat
Baltimore Heritage
Baltimore Heritage is an American nonprofit historic-preservation organization headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.
Foundation
Baltimore Heritage, Inc. was founded in 1960, and Baltimore's nonprofit historic preservation advocacy organizati ...
American Ice Companyat Explore Baltimore Heritage
Buildings and structures in Baltimore
Industrial buildings completed in 1911
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Baltimore
Ice companies
1911 establishments in Maryland
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