The industrial riverfront of the 1890s included the Municipal Ice Company.
The Municipal Ice Company on Water Street
One of the best resources for researching buildings and architecture is to look at the corporate letterheads of the owners. The Municipal Ice Company placed their plant at Market and Water Streets on their letterhead in the 1890s. Here’s the record entry from the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) at Tulane University:
Engraving shows at right a complex of buildings, presumably steam ice manufacturing and storage, with horse drawn wagons and workers and a steam railroad train (in imperfect perspective/proportion). At left the name of the company in elaborate lettering with artwork including a depiction of a block of ice.
Location is listed as corner of Market & Water Streets.
(h/t Infrogmation for placing the image in the Commons)
The company’s name is elegant, including an elaborate font for the words “Municipal” and “Company,” with “ICE” written on, naturally, a block of ice. It’s reminiscent of the top of a modern ice freezer one would find at a gas station or convenience store. The stationary includes two names, John Fitzpatrick, President, and M. J. Hart, Secretary and Treasurer. The address, “Cor. Market & Water Sts.” appears just below the plant engraving. The artists were Levy Bros & Simon, N.O.
Location specifics
Zoom-in on the ice plant.
While the engraving offers a splendid recreation of the ice plant, it’s lacking in specifics. Of course, that’s understandable, given the purpose here is making an impression on the reader. For more specifics on the plant, we went to the Sanborn maps of New Orleans from 1895. The map indicates that, four years after the letterhead, the plant is “Not In Operation.”
Sanborn Insurance map, 1895, showing the ice plant.
Two railroad tracks terminate in the plant, and two other tracks pass alongside it. Most of the railroad tracks in this area were owned by the Louisville and Nashville RR.
Market Street Power
Market Street Power Plant and Entergy Substation. Infrogmation photo.
The well-known NOPSI Market Street Power Station, with its pair of smokestacks, would appear on the other side of Market, off the top of this map. NOPSI built that plant in 1905. An Entergy New Orleans power substation stands replaced the Municipal Ice Company.
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