Ice Cream in Somerville, Part 1

In the United States, the average person consumes 23 liters of ice cream a year. For residents of Somerville, a substantial portion of this amount is obtained in cones, cups, sundaes and frappes at one of the Boston area's fine ice cream parlors. We may take it for granted that we can merely walk into J.P. Licks in Davis Square and eat our fill of Cherry Ortiz or Coffee Oreo. The history of ice cream in Somerville extends far back into the 19th century, and is entwined with the history of ice cream in America.

Ice cream was valued as a luxury dessert by the founding fathers; George Washington's financial records reveal he spent upwards of $200 on ice cream in the summer of 1790. However, it was a treat reserved for the elite until sometime after 1846, when Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia patented the first hand-cranked ice cream maker. By the late 1870s many improvements had been made to the original design, and ice cream was being shipped throughout the country. Ice cream parlours were ubiquitous in American towns by the turn of the century.

A search of Somerville City Directories beginning in the late 1880s reveals the presence of a number of small ice cream companies. One of the first to achieve some success was Davis Ice Cream, owned by Frank Adams, which offered "Ice Cream, Wholesale & Retail" at its 20 Summer St. location until about 1906. The profitability of a stand-alone ice cream parlour does not appear to have been substantial at that time, as most companies provided catering and other services in addition to ice cream. A bakery and ice cream parlour at 222 Pearl St., in existence from about 1900-1912 and variously known as McCullough, Marchant, and Comerford, advertised "Ice Cream in Bulk or Brick, Coffee in Insolated (sic) Tanks, Catering for Large or Small Parties, and Potato Chips". By the late 1920s luncheonettes and spas such at Pearl's at 213 Pearl and Perham's at 410 Highland were selling ice cream, homemade candy and sodas, paving the way for the soda fountain era.

The two most successful companies of this early period appear to be the Snow and Bushway Ice Cream companies. Walter H. Snow and Son operated an establishment in the Malta Bldg. in Gilman Sq. from at least 1905-1927 and were possibly in existence much earlier, as a B.C. Snow ice cream company is listed at a different location from the 1880s. Snow was also a combined ice cream parlour and bakery and additionally offered "light catering". The Bushway Ice Cream Company was founded in 1881 by J. Harley Bushway and ownership later transferred to his son J. Howard, according to the latter's obituary in the Boston Globe on December 11, 1980. Bushway Ice Cream was primarily a wholesale business that served hotels and restaurants, shipping its products in distinctive wagons and trucks with an arrow insignia, although a retail business is mentioned at a Cambridge location in the 1907 Somerville city directory. The wholesale location was Boynton Yard (present day Windsor Pl.) J. Howard Bushway merged his company with Whiting Milk Co. in 1929 and retired to focus on his golf game and aviation interests.

Sources

"Ice Cream" Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream. Accessed 5/14/07.

Ecott, Tim. Vanilla: Travels in Search of the Ice Cream Orchid. NY: Grove Press, 2004.

Somerville City Directories, 1886-1940

"J. Howard Bushway, Owned Ice Cream Company; at 95," Boston Globe, December 11, 1980.