It’s about a million degrees outside so we’ve all been dreaming about ice cream. Did you know there used to be an ice cream factory on The Loop back when it was Highway 40?
Built back in 1952, the Sealtest Ice Cream Factory was located on Hwy. 40 between Fay and College. Sealtest was a well-known milk and ice cream brand in the Midwest and Northeast. Founded in 1935 by Vernon Hovey, the company franchised locations to business owners with contracts with local dairies. Sealtest sponsored a pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing, NY and even had an ice cream parlor at Disney World. It was sold after his death and is now a part of Good Humor-Breyers.
Despite providing ice cream joy to kids everywhere, Sealtest gained notoriety in 1967. In Cleveland, Ohio, Martin Luther King urged a boycott of Sealtest Milk because they refused to hire Black people in their bottling company. The boycott also extended to A&P grocery stores who stocked Sealtest products and it wasn’t long before representatives from Sealtest and A&P were sitting down with 70 Black ministers to reach an agreement to advertise in Black newspapers and hire Black workers. A classic example of putting your money where your mouth is.
The ice cream factory is long gone and Robinson’s dry cleaners stands there now, ready to clean the chocolate sprinkle stains from your shirt. But if you’re looking for an icy treat to cool you off, Dairy Queen is just down the street with some absolutely sinful Blizzards (Choco Brownie Extreme, anyone?) or a simple chocolate dipped cone.
