Before modern refrigeration, ice protected farm produce from spoilage by keeping milk, meat, eggs, and other agricultural products fresh for shipment by rail from the mid-19th through the early 20th centuries. This pond was a man-made feature created sometime before 1859 by building a dam and digging out an area of Spruce Brook so water backed up behind the dam. In winter, when the pond froze, workers harvested the ice by cutting it into blocks and storing them in an ice house insulated with salt hay. Ice harvesting was hard work that required specialized saws, ploughs, and other tools. A standard 22- by 32-inch cake of ice weighed 23 pounds for every inch of thickness, so a 10-inch cake weighed about 230 pounds. Because some ice melted over the summer, large quantities had to be cut to last through the year. Spruce Brook flows north through the eastern edge of the Brick Lot, and there were originally three ponds along the brook; the two ponds to the south have since silted in, leaving this one to the northeast. The dam and pond were widened later in the 20th century, and during the summer the pond was home to waterfowl.