Ice House at Ashley Reservoir
Holyoke had its own city-owned railroad from where the Holyoke Heritage State Park is now into Westfield. It was started in 1868 and finished in 1871 with opening day being November 28 1871. In 1902, the railroad tracks were raised by 3 feet for 1700 feet of track due to the annual floodwaters of the ponds. The line is still active and is visible by the southern end of Ashley Pond. When it gets to Bush Notch it passes by the pipeline of Ashley.
One of the heaviest users of this freight and passenger line was the Holyoke Ice Company. Their ice house is located about 40 yards from the back end of the road. (LOCATION) The masonry section of the building is still there but the wooden roof and floor are long gone. This company harvested ice from Ashley Pond from 1900 to a little after WW2. It had a spike of the railroad come up along its side in order to load ice. Andrew Dibble owned this land from 1870 to 1900. Before that Elisha Perkins owned the house. The cellar hole of his house is found 20 feet to the east of the ice house.
Sanborn 1949 map shows the ice house and a dwelling along with hen houses
