The presence of a roof resting on the ground usually meant that an underground ice house existed beneath. Most farms dug ice ponds, usually along stream valleys. S. Brook Moore recalls harvesting ice at Plainfield: cutting it with a large-toothed saw, rafting slabs ashore with a harpoonlike pole--and trying to avoid falling into the frigid water. Each summer at Rose Hill the Canby family drained the ice pond to harvest bushels of eels.

This unusual structure, set behind Oak Hill in Spencerville, is believed to be the entrance to a root cellar. Placed underground to control temperature and circulation, root cellars stored potatoes and root crops such as turnips, parsnips, and rutabagas.