There’s nothing like ice cream on a hot summer day, and in 1920’s Marion, no one knew that better than Viggo V. Petersen. After immigrating to the U.S. from his native Denmark, Petersen worked as a chef for the family of Harry E. Converse at The Moorings. When the house was torn down and Petersen’s services were no longer needed, the Converse family gave him the equipment for making ice cream, and a business was born. Petersen opened his ice cream parlor in the carriage house/barn next to 9 Cottage Street in 1921, making what became known locally as New England’s best home-made ice cream.
In the SHS archives are several examples of Petersen’s artfully designed ice cream boxes. The image above shows the one pint box graced by the images of beautiful women gazing in anticipation of this delicious treat. The ice cream was not only delicious, however; the ornately decorated box proclaims that it is also “healthful,” “supreme quality,” and “full of goodness”! Petersen’s name is proudly displayed, as well as the reminder that this was a locally produced product from MARION, MASS.
Viggo C. Petersen took over the ice cream business after his father’s death in 1941, but due to both wartime cream shortages and the young Petersen’s enlistment in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, the ice cream shop was forced to close. Hoping to learn more about this enterprising family, I searched the SHS database (keywords “Petersen, Viggo”) and found a most extraordinary collection – the John Bates Diaries. This collection is comprised of 143 volumes containing the daily diaries of John Bates from 1908 to 1960. Bates recorded his daily activities in minute detail, as well as daily temperatures (several times a day), births, deaths, and marriages, and often glued newspaper clippings into the pages to supplement his diary entries. A clipping from the December 22, 1942 edition of the Standard-Times glued into that day’s entry of John Bates’ diary (Volume 48) records local reaction to the ice cream shop’s closing:
“Patrons of Petersen’s will have to find a new place from which to purchase their ice cream, as the popular parlor is now closed for the duration. Closing of the Library for two days a week and reduction of hours on other days caused little comment, but the closing of the ice cream place after being established on Cottage Street for 25 years, has set people talking.”
The shop reopened again after the war, closing for good in the 1970’s. Petersen’s ice cream shop is gone, but today’s residents and visitors to Marion can enjoy delicious ice cream on Cottage Street once again – just across the street from the site of Petersen’s acclaimed ice cream shop!
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