Before refrigeration, the Peden springhouse kept food cool through local geology and practical design. The Peden family raised livestock and chickens, kept a vegetable garden, and farmed hundreds of acres, and preserving milk, butter, eggs, and other produce required a springhouse. Cold water emerging from the ground cooled the air inside the building, while the structure provided shade, protection from animals, and storage space. Springs form when water soaking through the ground meets a harder layer of rock or clay and, unable to continue downward, follows that impervious layer until it emerges. Unlike surface water, groundwater from a spring maintains a constant cool temperature. Springs and caves are abundant at McCormick's Creek, where water percolating through limestone forms a weak acid that dissolves passageways. The Peden springhouse most likely pre-dates the 1857 barn. In 2012, it was restored, and eighteen inches of mud and debris were removed from its floor, revealing the flowing spring, a sediment pit, and a water trough. The sediment pit let dirt and mud settle before water flowed into the trough, where milk cans were set to keep cool, while eggs, butter, and other perishables were stored on shelves.