Doc Terry's Meat Locker

The building currently housing the Tin Lantern Antiques Mall (118 S. Main) has been home to all kinds of businesses over the years--saloon, farm implement dealership, and grocery store, to name a few!

In 1938, Cuba City physician Robert E. Terry purchased the building and turned it into a cold storage locker plant that got the attention of the trade journal, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration News, where it was featured in not one, but two issues. The accompanying photos come from those pieces.

 

 

The Wisconsin State Journal also reported on the locker plant on January 28, 1938:

 

"Dr. Terry was chairman of a Lions club committee which investigated the possibility of installing a locker plant here a year ago. Such plants have been installed in a number of Wisconsin towns recently. In operation, meat is first placed in a chill room which is kept at a temperature of 35 degrees until all the animal heat is dissipated. Then it is cut up according to the patron’s directions and each cut is wrapped in moisture-proof paper and subjected to sharp freezing at 10 degrees below zero. After that it is stored in the patron’s locker in a room kept at 12 degrees above zero.

 

The plant will have approximately 500 lockers, each with a capacity of 250 pounds. The second floor of the building will be remodeled into one modern apartment and a room for the storage of furs and woolens, according to present plans."

 

 

 

The more technical descriptions of the Cuba City locker plant published in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration News can be viewed in their entirety via Internet Archive: 

 

June 1, 1938: https://tinyurl.com/5eu2zhja

June 8, 1938: https://tinyurl.com/39b5dbm80