C.B. Kendall, a Gardner businessman ran C.B. Kendall Ice and Coal Company on Crystal Lake, among his other business ventures. He sold cord wood, coal and ice, the ice, being harvested from the clean waters of Crystal Lake.

The year after steamers started to ply the waters of Crystal Lake between the boathouses and Crystal Lake Park, Mr. Kendall bought Mahoney’s Ice House, and then C.W Morse’s Crystal Lake Ice House the following year in 1877. He eventually built a very large ice house up on the north end of the lake near the Boat Club House to store the harvested ice. He employed up to one hundred men and operated through the 1930’s.