My grandparents lived just west of Valley Forge. They had a cellar under an old smokehouse. They would cut ice from the Schuylkill River in winter and stash it in straw in that cellar, and the ice would keep well into the summer.
I grew up on the Schuylkill. Back in the day, it would freeze up every winter. Then, it would buckled and become like a scene outta Antarctica with ice caps sticking in the air...rugged and jagged. Sadly not anymore. Stepmother said it was due to Mt. St. Helen’s. The eruption disturbed the upper jet stream keeping winters not as harsh. Who knows tho?