From the 2010 Bertie County Architectural Survey : Icehouses were used for the storage of ice collected from frozen creeks or rivers in the winter and therefore needed to be kept as cool as possible. The best way to accomplish this was to set a brick lined room into the ground. Often this room was sheltered by a simple gable roof with slopes meeting the ground and a door in one gable end, but sometimes the icehouse had a greater superstructure. Both methods are displayed in the two extant examples of icehouses on Bertie County: one at Mill Landing (BR563) and one at the Thomson-Urquhart House (BR104) (Figure 95 – Figure 99). The Thompson-Urquhart House also has a separate building known as the cellar that was likely used for cool storage. Like the icehouse, it is built of solid brick laid in common bond with a gable roof. The cellar does not have the deep overhang that the icehouse features and it has ventilation in both gables, which the icehouse does not