• 2011 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Entry
• Significance: The Ice house is one of two remaining outbuildings from the exotic, Gothic Revival Bleak Hall Plantation (C. 1805 burned during the Civil War). John Townsend owned the Bleak Hall Plantation when the residence was built. The plantation had been in the Townsend family since 1751 and John inherited the estate in 1842 after his father's death. It is estimated that the Ice House was built in the 1840s. There was a garden that surrounded the ice and smoke houses which was designed by an Asian Botanist named Oqui who John Townsend brought from Washington, DC to create his garden. It is believed that the white poppies surrounding the building today are remnants of the once elaborate garden.

The Smoke House is the only other extant building from the plantation and it is a tabby Greek Revival building.

The Ice House is a small building with distinctive Gothic Revival trim, a steeply pitched dormer and Gothic arched shuttered windows. Two large doors on the North side of the building allow access for transferring ice in the ice house. Directly above these doors, is an upper door that provides access to the storage area in the gable. While it is now closed and used for storage, it is likely that the upper portion under the eaves housed the pulley equipment that facilitated the movement of the ice blocks. Above the ice pit the wood floor is raised and two large doors are laid on the platform that separate the floor from the tabby pit below where the ice was stored. At one time there was a double wall surrounding the area of tabby pit that helped provide insulation to maintain the ice. The evidence of the insulation wall is seen in the mortise holes in the ceiling above.

One inch circular ventilation holes surround the South side of the building in the upper siding. The "anti-room" of the ice house is one step lower that the wood platform above the ice pit. Mortise holes on the interior wall and in the beams of the ceiling indicate that there used to be a partition separating the two areas. The wooden floor of the raised section has been replaces, removing any visual evidence of previous partitions. The South portion of the building has also been white washed.

The building is a timber brace frame with pegged joints. There has been a large amount of material replaced over the years, though the basic structural frame is original and remains intact.

• Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N1786
• Survey number: HABS SC-879-A
• Building/structure dates: ca. 1840s Initial Construction