We can thank Philadelphia for ice cream sodas and root beer floats
To lure fairgoers to his flavored soda booth, 19th century entrepreneur Albert Green added a dollop of ice cream to his fizzy water and a sweet treat was born.
In the fall of 1874 Philadelphia entrepreneur Robert M. Green was looking to make his fortune selling soda fountains. So, he set up a stand at the grand exposition feting The Franklin Institute’s 50th birthday.
The monthlong fair — held on the corner of Chestnut and Market Streets where Wanamaker’s would stand just two years later — drew hundreds of people a day. To Green’s dismay, another soda fountain manufacturer showed up to make his fortune, too.
To lure more fairgoers to the flavored soda water he was hawking at 10 cents a pop, Green added a dollop of vanilla ice cream. (Green purchased the ice cream from Henry Snyder, a confectioner at the corner of 13th and Vine.)
“The ice cream soda came out of a moment of desperation,” explained Eric Berley, self-anointed ice cream historian and owner of Franklin Fountain in Old City. “It started to fizz and bubble up creating a real 19th century experience.”
The Philadelphia Historic District will honor ice cream soda’s effervescent beginnings at Franklin Fountain, Saturday July 29, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It will be the district’s 29th firstival, part of a yearlong party celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
Green made $8 that first day of ice cream soda sales. But he knew he could do better. According to a 1910 article in Soda Fountain, the next day he printed handbills advertising the creamy concoction. He gave teenagers free tastes and paid them to crowd around his booth to drum up interest.
By the end of the fair Green was pulling in $200 a day — $5,793 in today’s money.
Word of the sweet treat traveled throughout the country and ice cream sodas became a drugstore staple. Up until then, soda fountains were only used to make medicinal drinks like Alka-Selzer. Ice cream helped turn drug stores into hot spots.
Ice cream sodas, according to an article in the 1920 Philadelphia Evening Ledger were the precursors to the “sundae, the banana split, and the various egg drinks and a score or more of the tasteful and appetizing things which are now offered to the public.”
Green opened Robert M. Green & Sons, at Broad & Vine, in the late 19th century where he sold soda machines and made a fortune. He’s buried in West Laurel Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd where his tomb stone reads: “Here lies the originator of the ice cream soda.”
While it’s tempting to end the ice cream soda story here, there is more to this sweet saga.
At the 1876 Centennial, Philadelphia-based pharmacist Charles Hires introduced the temperance drink Root Beer, a spicy blend of 16 wild roots and berries.
Seventeen years later, Frank J. Wisner owner of Colorado based brewing company plopped in a scoop of vanilla ice cream, inventing the Root Beer float.
The terms ice cream soda and ice cream floats are used interchangeably these days, Berley said.
“But it’s clear without Philadelphia you wouldn’t have an ice cream soda or a root beer float.”
The Ice Cream Soda Firstvial will be held, Saturday is Saturday, July 18, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at The Franklin Fountain, 116 Market Street.
The Inquirer is highlighting a “first” from the Philadelphia Historic District’s 52 Weeks of Firsts program each week. A “52 Weeks of Firsts” podcast, produced by All That’s Good Productions, drops every Tuesday.
