George Washington's Ice House | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

As you can tell, I had a lot of fun today. One thing we came across on his Mount Vernon homestead was this ice house on the southeast corner:

It's due for renovation so I'm not sure if it's always had a green roof for insulation or if it's just been overgrown. At first glance I thought that it was just bermed but if you can make out the letters on the photo below, it's actually over 20' deep:

"In 1785, George Washington had an existing dry well adapted to create this ice house. While much of the 22-foot-deep brick chamber is original, the above ground portion was restored in 1938. It's location here made it convenient for filling each winter. Layers of ice from the river were packed into the chamber along with straw and sawdust, which helped keep the ice from melting until it was used in the warmer months."

Upon further digging (googling "George Washington Ice House"), I found that the walls were drystacked and the base lined with coarse gravel for drainage.

http://www.ushistory.....ehouse.htm

Don't know if anyone needs to build one but I thought it was a neat utilization of the same thermal mass that we're trying to use with berming houses. The soil temperature at the depth of the Washington ice house was around 54F.