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It
is generally accepted that the name "sundae" was created in
response to the "Blue Laws" which said that ice cream sodas
could not be sold on Sundays because they were to "frilly."
For some reason the "righteous" very much against what they
called "sucking soda" (especially on the Sabbath and the
clergy started preaching against them). The dish has gone by other names
at various time, most notably "sundi" and "sondhi."
Some accounts have explained all these names as attempts to avoid
offending the sensibilities of the devoutly religious, which might take
a dim view of a pile of ice cream and syrup being named after the
Sabbath.
Several
cities lay claim to first creating the original ice cream sundae:
 1881
- On July 8th, in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, it is claimed that the first
ice cream sundae was served by accident. Druggist Edward Berner, owner
of Ed Berner's Ice Cream Parlor was asked by a George Hallauer asked for
a ice cream soda. Because it was Sunday, the Sabbath, Mr. Berner
compromised and put ice cream in a dish and poured the chocolate syrup
on top (chocolate syrup was only used for making flavored ice cream
sodas at the time). Ed Berner sampled the dish and liked it enough to
begin featuring "ice cream with syrup" in his shop for the
same price as a dish of ice cream. This ice cream concoction cost a
nickel, and soon everybody wanted some. Today, the Washington House
Hotel Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin includes a replica of Ed Berner's
ice cream parlor.
The
Wisconsin State Historical Society recognizes Two Rivers, Wisconsin as
the birthplace of the sundae and in 1973 erected a historical marker in
Two Rivers Central Memorial Park that reads:
ICE
CREAM SUNDAE - In 1881, George Hallauer asked Edward C. Berner, the
owner of a soda fountain at 1404 - 15th Street, to top a dish of ice
cream with chocolate sauce, hitherto used only for ice cream sodas.
The concoction cost a nickel and soon became very popular, but was
sold only on Sundays. One day a ten year old girl insisted she have a
dish of ice cream "with that stuff on top," saying they
could "pretend it was Sunday." After that, the confection
was sold every day in many flavors. It lost its Sunday only
association, to be called ICE CREAM SUNDAE when a glassware salesman
placed an order with his company for the long canoe-shaped dishes in
which it was served, as "Sundae dishes."
1892
- Ithaca, New York also claims to be the birthplace of the ice cream
sundae in 1892. Reportedly, the ice cream sundae was invented on a hot
Sunday at the C.C. Platt drugstore, owned by Chester C. Platt
(1869-1934). In the process of dressing up a dish of plain vanilla ice
cream for Reverend John Scott after his Sunday service at the local
Unitarian Church, Platt poured cherry syrup over the ice cream and
placed a candied cherry at the top. Reverend Scott suggested that it
be named after the day it was invented. An old advertisement for a
Cherry Sunday at the pharmacy has been found to help back up this
claim.
Michael
Turback, in his book called A Month of Sundaes, says that this
version is the most probable for two reasons:
-
First,
the story was recounted to the Ithaca librarian and historian by
Christiance, the clerk who actually witnessed the event as it
happened.
-
Second,
Platt placed an advertisement in the local newspaper promoting his
new creation. The advertisement said:
CHERRY
SUNDAY - A new 10 cent Ice Cream Specialty. Served only at Platt
& Colt's. Famous day and night Soda fountain.
Late
1800s - The town of Evanston, Illinois claims to have
originated the name or phrase - ice cream sundae. They do not claim to
have been the originator of the sundae. Evanston, Illinois (then know
as Chicago's Heaven or Heavenston) was one of the first towns to
outlaw the "Sunday Soda Menace." Evanston was a very strict
religious town where the Sabbath was strictly observed. The town even
passed an ordinance prohibiting the retailing of ice cream sodas on
Sunday. According to sources published in Evanston, the sundae
originated at Garwoods' Drugstore. In order for people to continue
getting their ice cream treats, some creative person turned it into a
sundae instead. They did not serve ice cream sodas. They served sodas
without soda on Sunday. The Evanston Women's Christian Temperance
Union (WCTU) championed it as a pleasant alternative to alcoholic
drinks. Mr. Richard Lloyd Jones, former editor and publisher of the Tulsa
Tribune, wrote the following in an article he wrote one the
history of the ice cream sundae:
.
. . There are at least half a dozen communities in America that
claim the Sundae as their own; another famous etymology traces the
ice cream sundae to Ithaca, New York. But Evanstonians would like to
believe the word belongs to them. The Evanston Review once wrote:
"While Ithaca may have had the sundae as early as 1897, as the
chamber of commerce there claims, it obviously got there by two
means. Either some Northwestern student brought it home with him or
a Cornell student from Evanston took it there.'
Sources:
1880s:
Historical Event/Fact, by Tamara K. Gross, http://cdcga.org/HTMLs/decades/1880s.htm,
an internet web site.
A
Month of Sundaes: Ithaca's Gift to the World, by Michael Turback, Red
Rock Press, New York, NY, 2002. - Official Website of the Ice Cream
Sundae, http://www.icecreamsundae.com/ithacasgift.html,
an internet web site.
Chocolate,
Strawberry, and Vanilla: A History of American Ice Cream, by Ann Cooper
Funderburg, published by Bowling Green State University Popular Press,
1995.
History
of the Ice Cream Sundae, by Mr. Richard Lloyd Jones, Tulsa Tribune,
Evanston Public Library, http://www.evanston.lib.il.us/community/sundae.html,
an internet web site.
Ice
Cream, soda fountain, http://www.sodfountain.com/history/hisicecream.htm,
an internet web site.
Sundae
Best: A History of Soda Fountains, by Anne Funderburg, Popular Press, an
imprint of University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Two
Rivers Historical Society, http://www.lhinn.com/history.html,
an internet web site.
©
copyright 2004 by Linda Stradley - United States Copyright TX 5-900-517-
All rights reserved. If
you use any of the history information contained below for research in
writing a magazine or newspaper article, school work or college
research, and/or television show production, you must give a reference
to the author, Linda Stradley, and to the web site What's
Cooking America.
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