Searcy Arkansas Ice and Coal Building Approximately 1940's.

I'm sure one would have to be home to receive the ice or it certainly would melt, as you said.   Again, remember when all this was taking place, most women didn't work outside the home so someone was most always in the house.  The reason to put the sign up was so the poor iceman could just make one trip inside....carrying the right amt. of ice.  Rather than bringing in a 50 lb. block and all you wanted was 25 lbs. 

About the coal part of Searcy Ice and Coal Company. They sold anthricite coal, most likely from Pennslyvania.  I don't know where they stored it, it was not at the ice plant.  

Before natural gas was piped to our house on Academy and 7th (Pear), they delivered a ton or so at a time and dumped in our large garage that my dad had built to house trucks from his trucking company. My daily chore was to break up these large chunks into fist sized pieces and put them in coal scuttles and set them on the back porch. The large chunks often had complete plant fossils visible on the surface. 

Barbara, Thanks so much for posting this photo & all the other interesting old ones!  My grandfather John L Younger ran the Searcy Ice & Coal plant after he moved from Newport around 1913.  He handed it over to his son-in-law B.C. Huddleston.  His other son-in-law was Ben Grisham, who of course ran Grisham's Ice Cream until it went bust then sold it to Ray Yarnell.  Ben Grisham moved down to Corpus Christi, Texas, and re-started the Grisham's ice cream brand where it was popular throughout the 1930s and 1940s.  I've got a few old Searcy photos sitting around which I'll send through to you.  One has Hosea & his Searcy Ice & Coal delivery truck in the background.

Ice plants require a lot of electricity to power the condensers and refrigeration units and pump the water from wells -- thus the reason why a lot of early ice plants also sold coal on the side. In some instances the excess power capacity was sold; many of today's power companies began as ice plants.

The proximity of the ice plant and the future Yarnell's ice cream factory to Spring Park contributed to the loss of White Sulphur Springs and Searcy's reputation as a health spa. In the 1920s it became increasingly important to secure a source of water to supply the ice plant and the community and a half dozen wells were drilled nearby to tap the underlying aquifer(s). The wells failed to meet the growing demand -- water would later be piped from the Little Red River -- but they were quite effective in disrupting the flow to Searcy's renowned healing springs. For a while water from one of the wells was used to supplement the water lost at Spring Park but this ruse was quickly discovered after which Searcy's reputation as a health resort ceased.

I am currently painting on an old truck from that company. If I could post a picture I would.

We used to sit in the parking lot and wait for my papa to get off from the shoe factory!!! I'll never forget that! That was the early-mid 70's......