Moore's Ice Coal & Water Company - Berwick PA

Early photo of Brookside Ice Wagon loading ice at

warehouse in Foundryville, outside Berwick PA.

Brookside Ice later became Moore's Ice.

One of three ice warehouses in Foundryville
built by William H. Moore.


Early delivery truck for Moore's Ice.

Moore's Ice & Coal Company ~

Berwick PA

Moore’s Ice ~ Brookside Ice History

William H. (Will) Moore founded Brookside Ice, later Moore’s Ice, in the early 1900's. William and his wife Fannie Kile Moore had bought a farm in Foundryville, outside of Berwick, in 1909.

When the Berwick, Pennsylvania, water reservoir was being built, Will sold them clay fill out of the field in front of his farm house. That winter, this area filled with water as it was close to a creek. Will cut the ice and stored it, packed in sawdust, in a building on his farm.

The following Memorial Day, the Berwick Creamery needed ice and he hauled his ice by horse and wagon down to the creamery and was paid ten dollars. At the time Will was working at the Jackson & Woodin Car Plant in Berwick making one dollar and nine cents for a ten hour work day. Will and Fannie said ten dollars was a fortune and that started them in the ice business. The creek ran through the farm, so Will built dams and ice storage buildings.

At its height, Moore’s ice had three dams and three ice houses in Foundryville. Natural ice was harvested from the ponds and stored in the warehouses with sawdust as an insulator. Will said that when they were cutting ice in the winter, as many as thirty men would be there before daylight looking for work, hoping he would need another man that day.

Brookside Ice later became Moore’s Ice and in 1933 Will built an ice plant and storage warehouse at the rear of 321 Market Street, Berwick PA. Here he expanded his business and began making artificial ice. Later he added water and coal and became "Moore’s Ice, Coal & Water". The ponds he created can still be seen along Water Dam Road, Berwick, PA.