There was considerable rejoicing in Chariton during late spring, 1874, when George Frederick Gasser (1840-1894) added a second story to his frame building near the southwest corner of the Chariton square and created at the head of a new staircase what may have been Lucas County's first officially designated ice cream parlors.
Ice cream, a considerable delicacy in the days before modern refrigeration, had been prepared and served in Chariton almost from the start --- shallow ponds for producing ice in winter and ice houses for storing it through the summer had been among the earliest of the city's infrastructure (river ice also was harvested).
But the addition of a formal ice cream parlor notched the city up a level in some eyes, leading to this glowing review in The Patriot of June 3, 1874:
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At last Chariton can boast of a first-class restaurant. Mr. G.F. Gasser, the west side baker, who has been feeding the hungry and dealing out confectionary for a number of years has just made an improvement that is a credit to the town by adding a second story to his building and arranging as neat a set of ice cream parlors as can be found in any city. Fred's establishment may now be set down as among the first class institutions in the city.
Below is found, first, his sales room where, in addition to bread, pies and cakes and everything usually kept in a bakery, he keeps a nice fresh stock of canned and dried fruit, with green fruit in its season, also candied fruits of all kinds, candies, nuts, &c., &c.
In the center of the lower story is his dining room, where scores of persons each day take meals served up in the best of style for the low price of 25 cents each, while the rear of the building is occupied by kitchens and bakery.
Upstairs is a nice set of well finished rooms, two of which are nicely furnished with large mirrors, handsome marble tables, and other necessary articles, and constitute his ice cream parlors. These rooms are in front and are easy of access by means of a stairway leading directly from the sidewalk thither.
The object in arranging these rooms is to provide a place where both ladies and gentlemen can go at all times and partake of ice cream and other delicacies in their season without any molestation from the crowds that visit the bakery and dining room below. And those of our citizens who have long felt the need of just such accommodations will doubtless thank Fred for his enterprise and manifest their appreciation of the same by frequent visits to his establishment. On the whole, Mr. Gasser has proved himself a success as a caterer for the public stomach, and we bespeak for him an extensive patronage.
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The Gasser building, with "Bakery" painted on its front in the 1869 photograph used here, taken some five years before the second story was added, was located third storefront north of the intersection of Court Avenue and North Main at the southwest corner of the square. Its 1889 replacement, still in use, was built of brick.
Fred Gasser continued to operate his enterprises here until Dec. 5, 1882, when fire broke out in the kitchens and rapidly engulfed the building. Flames then spread both north and south, wiping out a total of five business buildings. Court Avenue stopped the fire at the south end of the block and the brick walls of the Matson Building, now occupied by Johansen Plumbing & Heating, prevented it from spreading farther north.
Gasser relocated to the south side of the square after that, leaving to others the task of building the Good Luck Building and the two double-fronted brick blocks that now fill that section of the square.
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Although we don't know for sure, Fred probably had his own ice house at the rear of his lot. Nick Leinen, who also operated a restaurant on the square and served ice cream, too, certainly did and Gasser's was by far the larger operation.
These need not have been elaborate structures. Here are instructions for building the basic model as published in The Patriot of Dec. 10, 1879:
The cheapest and best ice-house is made by building a shed or house with boards so set that they will hold sawdust or straw. If the space needed for ice should be eight feet by ten, and six feet high, let the house be ten by twelve and eight feet high. No double walls are necessary; they are useless and expensive. Sound boards an inch thick, properly supported will make the wall. Cover with a roof that will turn water, arrange for filling and taking out as may be most convenient, and the house is ready.
To fill it properly, the ice should be cut in square or oblong blocks, so that it will build up as nearly solid as may be. Throw some brush or poles on the ground to provide drainage, and cover well with straw or sawdust. Build the ice so that a foot or more of space shall be left between the walls and the ice. Fill this with sawdust or straw so well put in that no air spaces will be left. Cover the ice to the depth of one or two feet with sawdust or an equivalent of straw and the work is done.
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