The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-17
AN UNIQUE COLD
STORAGE CELLAR
1t Was Opened Saturday, After Being
Sealed for a Period of Eighteen
Years--What 1t Was Used for.

What perhaps is the most UNIQUE
cold storage in Scranton, or very likely
in PENNSYLVANIA, is the cold storage
cellar under the old Robinson property
on Cedar avenue, which, for years
dating back into the early '60s, was
hotel and until few weeks ago known
as Fuchs saloon.
The hotel, which is now razed to the
ground to make way for a more pre-
tentious building by the Robinson es-
tate, was one of the landmarks of
Scranton, and under this old hotel is
the famous cold storage cellar. In its
day it was wonderful, and still today
q magnificent piece of masonry. The
cellar, which has not been in use for
the past eighteen to twenty years, and
upon whose stone floors scarcely any
foot has trod for that length of time
was visited Saturday by a Tribune
man. through the courtesy of Charles
Stark.
Descent was made by the aid of q
torch through an opening two feet in
diameter, chiseled through two feet of
solid masonry in the arch, through
which a ladder thirty-two feet in
length had been dropped. AS the de-
age, poured through the aperture, as if
glad to escape from it's long imprison-
ment. The descent completed, the re-
porter found himself standing in a
long, dark, gloomy arched corridor,
eighteen feet high and thirteen feet
wide, built OF massive stone.
BY the flickering light of the torch
hundreds of glittering stalactites were
seen, hanging pendant-like from the
top and decorating and festooning the
joints. Some of these hardened stems
of carbonate of lime and water were
from four to six feet in length and
slender like a wax taper. They pre-
sented a brilliant appearance.
Directly underneath, and resembling
so many balls of marble, were their
counterparts, the stalagmites, which
were formed in the slime and water by
the constant dropping of the stalacttes
above. a whisper at one end would be
plainly heard at the other, and loud
cry would reverberate ten to fifteen
times.
The cellar, the high stone arch of
which is some twenty feet below the
level of Cedar avenue, is 175 feet in
length, and runs from Cedar avenue to
within twenty or thirty feet of the
Roaring Brook. 1t is of arched form,
eighteen to twenty feet high and
twelve to fifteen feet wide, and is built
| OF heavy stone. 1t was here the beer
from the brewery was stored after ii
was brewed, and put in cold storage
for several months, often years, and
kept at an even temperature. This was
before the day of the present cold
storage system. 1t was in this place
that beer brewed in NJ. Robinson's
plant was brought from the brewery
in large hogsheads and was trans
ferred by large pipe to rows of bar
rels in the cellar. To keep this cellar
at an even temperature was no easy
task, so when warm weather set in
tons of ice were pushed through an
aperture at one end, two feet square.
into a stone refrigerator ten feet
square and eighteen feet high, which
was separated from the main room by
heavy wall, and this rough refriger-
| ator, through the warmest weather,
kept the cellar cool. At the other end
of the cellar from the refrigerator was
a windlass. by which the kegs were
drawn to the surface when needed.
Pipes were at one time connected with
the brewery and the cellar and an at
tempt made to run the beer direct to
the cold storage cellar, a block and a
half away, but owing to the foam
gathering it was pronounced not feas-
ible.
The cellar which was built thirty
years ago at great cost, was built by
one of the Robinson family. 1t was
| used as a cold storage from that time
until the year 1882, when the present
cold storage came in vogue, and the
| cellar discontinued, and for eighteen
years has been practically Theoretically
sealed. 1t is an interesting example OF
| the old German method of keeping