What is the history of the Lincoln Ice Company located on 1992 North Clark Street in Chicago?

Answer 1

Lincoln Ice Company, Chicago, IL

To the best of my knowledge, Lincoln Ice Company had no facilities on Clark Street in Chicago. They did have plants at 609 South Boulavard in Evanston, Halsted Street just south of Diversey (Chicago), Eddy Street just west of Clark Street (Chicago), Carmen Street between Clark and Ashland (Chicago) and Elizabeth Street (Chicago).

My Father ran the Evanston plant for 13 years and the Halsted plant for about 5 years. My Grandfather ran the Evanston plant after my Father until it closed.

The Halsted plant supplied crushed ice to Wrigley Field for all Cubs and Bears games (to ice the beer).

Lincoln Ice Co. played a major support role in WWII by supplying ice to military camps in the south. My Father, along with many other Lincoln Ice employees loaded railroad box cars with 400lb cakes of ice, covered the ice with straw and the cars were then routed to military camps in the souther U.S.

The company was owned and operated by the McGinnis Brothers (not sure of the spelling).

Their fleet of trucks were painted a school bus yellow with gold block lettering.

They manufactured ice cubes by sawing 400lb cakes of ice into 1" square cubes that were perfectly clear.

Actually, Lincoln Ice Company had a plant on Greenview Ave, 1 block West of Clark Street off of Leland Ave, across from Chase Park. This is about 4600 North and 1600 West. As a small boy in the '40s, my friends and I use to make snow (ice) balls from the shaved ice that was piled outside of the plant. When it's 104 degrees in the summer, playing in ice was fun. Lincoln Ice also sold milk (1st 7-11) that they kept in a large cooler on the dock where the ice trucks loaded their ice. My friends and I hitched many a ride on the trucks as they crept down alleys delivering their ice. Ice chips work just as well as popcycles and were free in the hot Chicago summers.