Rose Glen Dairy: "Ice cream unsurpassed"
Miscellany Mondays
Many Andover residents are familiar with the Andover Deli at 22 Andover Street. Or they’ve visited one of the other businesses in the long rectangular building sandwiched between Andover Street and the railroad.
But some may know it as the site of the Rose Glen Dairy.
ACHC #1986.021.1
Sidney Pratt White
When Sidney Pratt White (1899-1983) opened the dairy farm and ice cream stand in 1960, he was far from an inexperienced farmer. White owned the Wild Rose Farm on Lowell Street.
He raised purebred Holstein-Friesian cattle and delivered milk. Before that, he managed the farm at his family home and studied at the Essex County Agricultural School in Danvers.1
ACHC #1998.543.6
ACHC #1998.543.2
White purchased the gentleman’s farm from the heirs of William M. Wood.
Wood established the farm in the 1920s to feed the residents of his planned community, Shawsheen Village. When Wood died in 1926, the community no longer relied on a dedicated farm.2
ACHC #1998.515.1
With the introduction of interstate highways and the decline of New England agriculture, White’s farm was ripe for development. He sold his farm to Harry Axelrod in 1959. Axelrod built the Wild Rose housing development we see today.3
White was a life-long Andover resident and a selectman for 16 years. He lived in the Abbot-Baker House at 5 Argilla Road. After the sale of his farm, he decided to move his operations closer to home.
He built two buildings on Andover Street. The first was the ice cream stand and the second was a barn called the “Cow Palace."4 There he served over “26 varieties” of homemade ice cream.5
One young employee recalled long lines throughout the hot summer months.6 Customers had to fight off ducks from the pond across the street.7
In an advertisement, White described his product as “ice cream unsurpassed."8 I think Andover residents agreed.
White died in 1983. He was a selectman, a Town Animal Inspector, a member of the Board of Public Works and Planning Board, and chair of the 325th-anniversary committee.9
He was also a member of the Andover Center for History and Culture. He restored his 17th-century home and placed a Historic Preservation restriction on the property.10
The ice cream business lasted another 9 years, closing in 1992.11 The parlor now houses four different local businesses including the Andover Deli. Developers converted the Cow Palace into office space. His horse stable on Argilla Road is the clubhouse of Abbot Pond Condominiums.12
Do you remember the Rose Glen Dairy? Or, what was your favorite ice cream stand growing up, and what it is today?
Last modified March 2, 2021.
Gail Ralston, Edward M. Harris, Alice Flanders, and Barbara Gaunt, Selectmen of the Town of Andover (Town Fathers and Mothers) 1855-2012 (Andover: Town of Andover, 2012), 42, https://andoverma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/555/Andover-Selectmen-1855---2012-PDF?bidId=.
James S. Batchelder, “274 Lowell Street,” Andover Historic Preservation, Andover Preservation Committee, November 5, 2014, https://preservation.mhl.org/274-lowell-st.
John Doherty, e-mail message to author, February 16, 2021.
Nancy J. Stack, Juliet Haines Mofford, and James S. Batchelder, “5 Argilla Road”, Andover Historic Preservation, Andover Preservation Committee, last modified July 11, 2017, https://preservation.mhl.org/5-argilla-rd.
Gail Ralston, “Andover Stories: Local ice cream business has flourished over the years,” Andover Townsman, August 27, 2015, https://www.andovertownsman.com/news/lifestyles/andover-stories-local-ice-cream-business-has-flourished-over-the/article_9ffbee04-ecc5-527c-b61f-d7664cd67e3b.html.
Elisa Steele, “Two Scoops with Elisa Steele,” Mission, The Mission, accessed February 8, 2021, https://mission.org/two-scoops-with-elisa-steele.
Ralston, “Andover Stories: Local ice cream business has flourished over the years.”
Thomas Adams, “Column: Romancing the cone: Andover's love of ice cream,” Andover Townsman, May 28, 2020, https://www.andovertownsman.com/opinion/column-romancing-the-cone-andovers-love-of-ice-cream/article_50d9f5db-8392-53ab-a00b-6f7e8ba3df4b.html.
Ralston, et. al., Selectmen of the Town of Andover, 42.
Stack, et. al., “5 Argilla Road.”
Memorial Hall Library, “Andover Business - Rose Glen Dairy,” Andover Answers, Memorial Hall Library, January 7, 2016, https://answers.mhl.org/Andover_Business_-_Rose_Glen_Dairy.
Stack, et. al., “5 Argilla Road.”