The Ice House is a living, working legacy to our area from Bill Kidder, the man who created it. Bill, born in 1912, spent his life in New London, as had his father before him. In 1911, anticipating the future importance of the automobile, his father had established the first garage in New London on the corner of Pleasant and Main Streets. Bill eventually ran the garage, and in the 1950’s bought the ice house building just down the road for added storage space for customers’ cars, other garage paraphernalia, and his own growing collection.
Because he always liked to tinker on something, Bill spent his “leisure” time at the Ice House, where one building eventually led to seven more. Friends and customers would stop by and drop off things for him to work on. He was especially interested in items that had been used in New London or the immediate area and was constantly polishing, tinkering, repairing, and restoring these things.
The collection includes innumerable examples of tools and machinery, many of local origin. There are wonderful children’s riding toys, bicycles and cars (mostly old Fords) and an interesting variety of items of town interest including the first fire engine, first movie projector, and the town jail. He loved explaining these things, their history, and how he came to acquire them, to the constant stream of visitors. Bill enjoyed showing people around, demonstrating how things worked and sharing his infinite admiration for the “Yankee Ingenuity” demonstrated by many items of the collection.