Every week we publish a historic photo highlighting a story from Naperville’s past from the history archives of Naper Settlement.
With warm weather fast approaching, we turn our attention to one of summer’s best-loved treats: ice cream.
Quite a bit of ice cream was once produced in Naperville and enjoyed at the Prince Castle/Cock Robin shops found here and in other Chicago-area communities.
Childhood friends Walter Fredenhagen and Earl Prince formed a partnership more than 90 years ago when they decided to try their hand at selling ice cream directly to customers rather than selling what they produced to other shops.
Each had experience in the business. Fredenhagen — a Downers Grove native with a law degree from Northwestern University — owned an ice cream plant called Frozen Gold in Naperville. Castle’s ice cream plant was in Rushville.
In 1931, the pair joined forces to open a chain of Prince Castle ice cream stores. Naperville was the first, followed by locations in Downers Grove, LaGrange, Glen Ellyn and Elmhurst.
As befitted the name, the design of the shops made them look like small castles and, with a nod to the changing modes of transportation, each had a parking lot.
The partners then formed two separate chains using the same name. Prince’s operations were south of Chicago while Fredenhagen’s shops were north and west of the city.
Walter’s wife, Grace, oversaw the selection and training managers and had supervisory responsibilities.
With ice cream being a seasonal food, they added hamburgers and fries to the menu in the 1940s.
Ice cream was produced at a factory at 38 W. Chicago Ave. in Naperville using cream delivered by tanker trucks from dairy farms in Wisconsin. Sauces for sundaes were made with fresh fruit shipped in from Washington state.
The meat processing plant to make the company’s “castleburgers” was also in Naperville at 36 E. Fifth Ave.
Innovations included ice cream cabinets, square ice cream containers and square-shaped ice cream scoops. The Multi-Mixer device the partners invented and patented was the first ever used to make malted milkshakes, powered by a one-third horsepower motor.
It produced the “One In A Million” malted milkshake, which they made with a patented formula so thick that its claim to fame was it nearly clogged the straw.
Ray Kroc, who would go on to found McDonald’s, once sold Multi-Mixers out of the Prince Castle’s sales division in Chicago. Fredenhagen and Prince trained Kroc in the business.
At its height, there were more than 20 Prince Castle ice cream shops around the Chicago area. The company sold more than one million gallons of ice cream each year and there were recipes for 100 flavors.
For a while, the company was the second-largest employer in Naperville.
The partnership between Fredenhagen and Prince came to an end in 1954. Fredenhagen changed the name of his shops to Cock Robin in 1955, creating the motto: “Cock Robin: Where Memories are Made.”
Eventually the castle style of Fredenhagen’s shops gave way to a more modern look. The makeover of Naperville store on Washington Street took place in 1967.
In 1980, there was a shift in the Cock Robin business model. Store managers became dealers, leasing their stores and buying their products from the company.
Fredenhagen retired in 1985 after he sold the ice cream business to Petersen Ice Cream.
The last of three Naperville stores closed on Washington Street in 2000. Walter Fredenhagen’s children, Ted Fredenhagen and Rita Harvard, sold the land on which it sat to the city for $10 with one proviso, that it be used as part of the Riverwalk. Fredenhagen Park was dedicated in May 2004.
The last Cock Robin store was in Brookfield and closed in 2008
As for Naperville’s signature Cock Robin sign — the one featuring a robin dressed in a top hat and tuxedo — it can be seen on a wall in the beer garden of Irish Times, 8869 Burlington Ave., just west of the former Cock Robin location.
Andrea Field is the curator of history at Naper Settlement. For more information, go to www.NaperSettlement.org. Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
