Photo by Jess Mancini From the left, Charles Graham, Mick Graham and Tom Smith in the large freezer at the Ice House next to blocks of ice and the bags for Home City Ice. Home City Ice of Cincinnati has purchased the company.

PARKERSBURG — A Parkersburg ice maker that started in 1922 has been sold to a Cincinnati company with a familiar name.

The Ice House at Depot and East streets was sold to Home City Ice in a deal closed Friday, said Ice House owner Charles Graham, 87. The Ice House packages ice that is locally sold as Home City.

Graham’s family has been involved in the business since 1946 when his brother, H.F. “Barney” Graham purchased the H. Kesterson Ice and Storage Co., founded in 1922, from Hagar Kesterson, at East and Seventh streets where, before the advent of home freezers, he would store processed carcasses. H.F. Graham also owned a packing house on Seventh Street where the present-day Superior Toyota is located.

Graham bought out H.F. in 1973 when his older brother, who has passed, retired.

It’s a good time to sell, Graham said. “The planets lined up.”

Photo Provided An original coupon book of the H. Kesterson Ice Co. The company, founded in 1922 at East and Seventh streets, later became the Ice House now located a block away on Depot Street.

“I’m 87. Tom (Manager Tom Smith) is 70,’ Graham said. “The opportunity came and we decided to let it go.”

The Ice House and Home City affiliation came about when Home City was expanding into other markets, including Parkersburg, Graham said. The company was not successful competing against the Ice House.

“So they came in here and made us a deal,” Graham said.

Ice House has been packing ice under Home City since 1994, Smith said.

The existing Ice House facility was built in 1980, the site of a former stock yard, Graham said.

Photo by Jess Mancini Charles Graham stands next to a compressor that was once in the old Parkersburg Creamery. The unit and others from other companies are in use at the Ice House at East and Depot streets.

The company employs around a half dozen people, more in the summer.

Graham’s son, Mick Graham, also works at the Ice House.

“Since I was about that tall,” Mick said, gesturing with his hand a couple feet off the ground.

Mick Graham and Smith said it will be difficult to adjust. Smith has been with the company for 40 years.

“It’s going to be hard to give up the customers we built a relationship with,” Smith said.

Photo Provided Charles Graham in the Ice House processing plant circa 1980. Graham bought the company from his brother, H.F. Graham, in 1973. Home City Ice purchased the company on March 30.

But it’s time to go, Charles Graham said.

“I’m ready. I’m 87. I’m in good health,” he said. “I have 30 acres and a lot of grass to take care of.”

Photo by Jess Mancini An ice pick from the original H. Kesterson Ice and Storage Co. and a sign used when people used ice boxes before the advent of modern refrigerators. The ice man knew how much ice to leave by depending on what hole the sign was hung.