What is that?

If you know, let us know. Send your responses to [email protected] or phone 749-1000, extension 18.

Last week, many people knew where our mystery photo was taken — including Georgiana Ketcham, Carleen Washington, Richard Loper and Capt. C. Stone — although no one knew what it was (see below).

But Shelter Island Historical Society historian Phyllis Wallace knows. Ms. Wallace said the tower was part of an incinerator, noted on an 1889 map. It was near what was then the New Eastern Ice Company at Ice Pond owned by the Heights Grove and Camp Meeting Association, which later became the the Heights Property Owners Corporation.

Tom Speeches had that info cold, so to speak, adding “the old incinerator was used [for power] many many years ago to generate ice blocks. The ‘mechanics and workings,’ all rusted now, are still there as are the actual ice forms buried in the dirt and muck and seen when the creek is very low. As a young man I clearly remember Evans Griffing telling the story of how the ice was formed and was pulled up and out by horses and wagons, necessary refrigeration for that time period, [that’s why] today it’s called Ice Pond Park.”