Thomas S. Herbert Cold Storage and Ice Corporation
Crozet’s commercial district made great strides in 1909, due in part to the late Abram Wayland’s savvy willingness to sell lots from his farm to incoming residents and prospective business owners. Among the most optimistic was the group of orchardists and businessmen who organized and chartered, in 1909, the Fruit Growers Cold Storage and Ice Manufacturing Company. Construction began on a three-story concrete block warehouse with a capacity of 8,000 to 10,000 barrels “to store a good part of the apple crop at home instead of sending to the cities to store. They will ship out in refrigerated railway cars properly iced.”
That project languished mid-stream and, in May 1910, the effort reorganized under the auspices of the Crozet Ice and Cold Storage Corporation. Principals in this group included Dr. William Fitzhugh Carter, Charles L. Wayland and W. F. Carter, Jr. The project was completed by the fall of 1912.
In 1915, the Fruit Growers Ice and Cold Storage Corporation was chartered, and “one of the most modern, reinforced-concrete [six-story] warehouses were erected adjoining the original building.” Local fruit production continued to climb and demand soon outstripped even what the new behemoth could provide. By 1918, the Carter Corporation began yet another addition: a near-duplicate joined to the 1915 expansion.
Of equally great value were the additional services and benefits to the village of Crozet: the cold storage’s steam boilers burned coal, and a private rail siding kept a constant supply of fuel available for the plant and residential users; the plant’s dual electrical generators supplied electricity enough that a grid was set up to serve homes and businesses within the village limits. Streetlights were installed “which gave the town a decided metropolitan cast,” as described by the Daily Progress…