ELKINS -
The Icehouse is a cool hot spot for Davis & Elkins students, but it was cool 200 years ago. It was used back in the 1800s as a refrigerator.
"This is the Icehouse," said Scott Goddard, vice president of Student Affairs at Davis & Elkins College. "For our founding fathers, truly was the ice house. Where they would get ice form the lake, pack it in saw dust. And this building, facility served as their refrigerator."
But food isn't all it kept cool.
"There's even folklore that says we had a tunnel system at one time that connected the Icehouse to our two Mansions Graceland and Hallehurst and they had a primitive form of air conditioning," Goddard said.
The Icehouse is still keeping things cool. But its use has changed tremendously over the years.
"The Icehouse is our on campus pub as well as been a music spot, quite neat looking venue form the outside, you don't see its kind of apparent size and the fact that it's built on the side of the hill,"said Christopher Young, a junior at Davis & Elkins College
It was built that way on purpose.
"Being built right in the hillside it always remains a constant temperature," Goddard said.
The Icehouse is a campus icon that students and alum will never forget.
"It's a student hangout," Goddard said. "Whenever alumni come back to D&E they want to check out the ice house. It has a special place in their hearts."
For more information about the Icehouse, click here.
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2012 WorldNow and WBOY. All Rights Reserved.