Hiding in the Icehouse

Alexander Haight, a Quaker who lived at Sully, feared being forcibly taken by the Confederate army, which was looking for able-bodied men and searching for supplies, and he was a suspected Union sympathizer. According to family tradition, he hid with his horse in the icehouse to avoid Confederate troops. Built into an embankment, possibly during the mid-1850's, the icehouse used three naturally insulated walls created by the embankment, along with stone and wood walls, to help keep ice from melting. Ice harvested from Cain's branch stream could have provided cool food storage for families, and the Haight icehouse is estimated to have been 10' by 12'.

Sully Square, Virginia · United States