Old Adams District

Old Adams District History The Ice Works

An east-side landmark · 1897

The ice works & the egg economy

On the corner of East D Street stands a brick building that once made the ice, kept the cold storage, churned the butter, and generated the electric light for the whole town — the engine room of the World's Egg Basket.

An 1898 illustrated plate titled 'Petaluma's Pride' showing the Western Refrigerating Co. engine room, ice-manufacturing department, exterior of the plant, cold-storage hallway, and butter-making department.
"Petaluma's Pride," 1898 — the Western Refrigerating Co. combine, photographed for a county promotional book: engine room, ice-making, the exterior, the cold-storage hallway, and the creamery, all under one roof. Reynolds & Proctor, Sonoma County Homes and Industries (1898). David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Ice, butter, and electric light, under one roof

In 1898 a single Petaluma plant advertised itself as offering "Electric Light, Electric Power, Ice Plant, Cold Storage and Creamery Under one combine." Operated as the Western Refrigerating Co. (and tied to the Petaluma Electric Light, Cold Storage & Power Co.), it manufactured about five tons of ice a day in 100-pound blocks, ran cold-storage rooms packed with eggs, butter, and fruit, churned butter in its creamery — and, from 1897 to 1907, its four dynamos supplied all of Petaluma's electricity, until the larger utilities arrived. documented

The Burdell Building

The building itself was the work of the Burdell family of the great Rancho Olompali north of town. It was conceived in 1895 by James B. Burdell and completed in 1897 by his mother, Mary Burdell, at 405 East D Street, on the corner of Lakeville Street. Over the years it housed, in turn, the Burdell Creamery, the Petaluma Ice & Cold Storage Co., the Western Refrigerating Co., and the town's electric company; by 1914 it had grown into Sonoma County's largest creamery, and it later traded as Western Dairy Products. Today it survives as City of Petaluma Historic Landmark #14. documented

A 1910 Sanborn map detail showing the Western Refrigerating Co. cold storage, creamery and ice house between Adams Street and Hopper Street.
The plant on the map in 1910: "Western Refrigerating Co.," "Cold Stge," and "Creamery" sit right where Adams (now East D Street) meets Hopper (now Lakeville) — the same corner the building occupies today. Sanborn Map Co., Nov. 1910. Public domain, Library of Congress.

Why ice mattered: the egg economy

Cold storage was not a luxury in Petaluma — it was the infrastructure that made the "World's Egg Basket" possible. A town shipping tens of millions of eggs and mountains of butter to San Francisco needed somewhere to hold them cold until the boats and trains left. The ice works fed the hatcheries, the egg-packing houses, and the dairies, and a second cold-storage operation — the National Ice and Cold Storage Company — built its own building in 1908 a few blocks away, at East Washington and Lakeville. documented

A note on names

Petaluma's records call this an ice plant, cold storage, or simply the Burdell Building — never an "ice mill." We've kept the documented terms, but if a neighbor remembers it as the old ice mill, the spirit is exactly right.

Sources

  1. "Petaluma's Pride: Electric Light, Electric Power, Ice Plant, Cold Storage and Creamery," in Reynolds & Proctor, Sonoma County Homes and Industries (Santa Rosa, 1898) — the Western Refrigerating Co. combine and its departments. David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). archive.org
  2. "From otters to eggs: Petaluma's iconic Burdell Building," Petaluma Argus-Courier / Petaluma News, 2022 (Burdell family; 1895 conception / 1897 construction; ice capacity; the four dynamos). petalumanews.com
  3. Burdell Building historical marker (Native Sons of the Golden West, 2023), Historical Marker Database — ice capacity and the 1897–1907 electric service. hmdb.org
  4. John Sheehy, "Petaluma's butter gold rush," Petaluma Historian — Western Refrigerating as the county's largest creamery by 1914. petalumahistorian.com
  5. "List of historic landmarks in Petaluma," Wikipedia — Burdell Building, 405 East D Street, City Landmark #14 (Ord. No. 2381 N.C.S.). wikipedia.org
  6. "The birth of Petaluma's River City revival," Petaluma News, 2023 — the National Ice and Cold Storage Building, built 1908 at East Washington and Lakeville. petalumanews.com
  7. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Petaluma, November 1910 (Western Refrigerating Co. shown at Adams/Hopper). Public domain, Library of Congress. loc.gov