Harvesting ice was an important industry in Norfolk before the advent of mechanical refrigeration in the 1920s, and frozen ponds were kept free of snow not for skating but to keep the ice from getting soft before the harvest. Ebenezer Burr advertised “Tobey Pond Ice” delivered door-to-door on hot summer days, and the Norfolk Ice Company operated on Pond Hill Pond, just east of town, where the ice froze especially thick. The ice had to be at least 12 to 18 inches thick before it could be harvested. The job was labor-intensive. First, grooves were cut into the ice in a crisscross pattern. Next, a channel was cut from the grid to the shore with a five-foot ice saw with foot-long teeth. Blocks of ice were cut on two sides, knocked loose with a pick and floated down the channel. Each block was about two feet by four feet and weighed between 250 and 300 pounds. Once hoisted out, the ice was transported by horse-drawn sled to the ice house, where the blocks were carefully laid in layers and covered with insulating sawdust to prevent melting.

—Ann Havemeyer
Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Historical Society