From the Richmond Dispatch, 5/17/1890, p. 1, c. 3

TO GET CHEAPER ICE.
A FACTORY TO BE ESTABLISHED ON THE LIBBY-PRISON SITE.

Besides Making Ice There Will Be Cold Storage for Meats, Fruits, Vegetables, &c.

The citizens of Richmond stand what appears to be an excellent chance of having ice furnished to them at much lower prices than those which now obtain here before the heat of the summer is spent.

In fact it is given as an assured certainty that before the middle of July, when the season of greatest suffering from heat is just reaching its zenith, the freezing luxury will be dispensed through the streets of Richmond at prices far cheaper than are now exacted.

It has been intimated that this necessity to comfort in the domestic part of life will be offered to our people at a tariff not in excess of sixty cents per hundred pounds, and there have been rumors to the effect that more reasonable tariffs will be observed where the quantities dealt in are large.

FACTORY AT LIBBY PRISON.

However this may be, there is certainly to be another large factory here for the manufacture of transparent ice, and there is no reason to doubt that the article can be made by the process which will be adopted and furnished to consumers upon the terms named and at a profit to those engaged in the enterprise.

The factory will be located on the site of Libby Prison, which building has been moved to Chicago and reërected in practically the same form that was here.

Mr. Charles A. Rose, real estate agent and auctioneer, acting for the Chicago syndicate, has sold the Libby-Prison lot to the Crystal Ice Company. The negotiations were conducted with Mr. C. D. Wingfield, the secretary-treasurer and general manager of the purchasing company. This lot is a most eligible one and is located at the southeast corner of Cary and Twentieth streets. It has a front of 130 feet and runs back 120 feet to the dock. The consideration was $4,000 cash.

Mr. Rose has also sold Mr. Wingfield for the company the adjoining lot, 44x120 feet, owned by the Southern Fertilizer Company, for $1,760.

READY TO BUILD.

Mr. Rose has received the deed of conveyance from the Libby-Prison War Museum and it has been delivered to the purchasers for record at once. This closes out the interest of the Chicago concern here. Members of the syndicate in a recent letter to Mr. Rose express the hope that they would soon be able to come to Richmond and visit our citizens, with whom they formed pleasant acquaintances when on their last trip here.

Mr. Wingfield has received estimates of the cost of the buildings proposed to be erected, the plans are now being perfected, and the contracts will be let in a very few days and work will begin at once.

WHAT WILL BE DONE.

The company proposes to erect buildings on these two lots for two 35-ton ice-machines of the most improved hind: refrigerating ice-houses holding 5,000 tons of ice, and commodious cold-storage departments for preserving meats, fish, butter, eggs, and vegetables.

They will increase their ice-making capacity to 100 tons per day as soon as additional machinery can be procured and will run winter and summer. In winter they will store their surplus stock in houses in which the temperature will be kept below the freezing point, so that when the ice is taken out in summer it will be as good as when it was put in. The ice will be absolutely pure, being made from distilled water, and it is claimed will last longer than the natural article.

Mr. Wingfield, who was formerly with Allen & Ginter, has recently been engaged in the manufacture of ice in the South west, and he will adopt here the process which he has found to work very successfully. He expects to be able to put the ice on the market by July 1st.

THE CHARTER.

The Crystal Ice Company was chartered by Judge Wellford, of the City Circuit Court, on the 26th of February, and its purposes, as defined in the petition to the Court, are to manufacture, buy, store, and sell ice and to buy, store, and sell meats, fruits, and all other kinds of provisions for table use usually stored in ice-houses or cold departments.

The capital stock of the company is to be not less than $50,000 and may be increased to $100,000.

Real estate may be held not exceeding four acres at any one time, and authority is given to erect buildings, put in machinery, &c.

The officers are: President, John Pope; Vice-President, Thomas F. Jeffress; Secretary and Treasurer, C. D. Wingfield; Directors, the above and Messrs. Lewis Ginter and Howard Swineford.

 

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