Fayetteville Ice and Manufacturing Company:Plant and Engineer's House
Why it's listed
Built around 1908 at Rowan and Hillsborough streets in Fayetteville, this brick ice plant was the second home of the Fayetteville Ice and Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1899. It has three main sections: an ice storage room, a freezing tank room and an engine room, all expanded over the years. The complex also includes a frame wagon and auto shed and a one-story engineer's house with a hip roof, Tuscan-columned porch and fine interior plasterwork. Railroad tracks ran beside the plant, and trains carrying fruit and vegetables stopped to be iced down from a long platform. The company sold ice and coal to homes, businesses and railroads, and later operated as Colonial Ice Company. When nominated, the plant still made ice much as it had early in the century, using ammonia compressors and brine-cooled freezing tanks, and the plant engineer still lived on site. It was listed for showing how essential ice production was to daily life and rail transport, and as a complete ice-manufacturing complex.
Significance in brief: The complex illustrates the type of industrial plant built locally to supply ice and coal for the heating and cooling needs of the rail network and of everyday life around 1900. It still uses the original ice-making process, and the plant, engineer's house, shed and grounds together make up a complete ice-manufacturing operation.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 83001851, listed July 7, 1983. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 436 Rowan St. and 438 Rowan St., Fayetteville |
|---|---|
| County | Cumberland County |
| Listed | July 7, 1983 |
| Reference number | 83001851 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | ca. 1908 |
| Architectural style | Turn-of-the-century industrial architecture (plant); simple one-story center-hall house with Tuscan-column porch (engineer's house) |
| Criteria |
|
| Areas of significance | Industry, Commerce |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | At the time of the nomination the plant was still operating as the Home Ice Company, making ice by the original process, and the engineer still lived in the house on the premises. The wood shop and storage shed once attached to the wagon shed are gone, and the railroad canopy has been removed. |
| Acreage | 3 |
| Coordinates | 35.06018, -78.88295 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 83001851.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q18210222
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.