Mayflower Ice Cream, 42-25 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, New York, 2002
The Mayflower Ice Cream Corp. manufactured ice cream and other milk-based frozen confections here on Vernon Blvd. in Queens from approximately 1938 until the mid-1980s.
The building above was purchased by Mayflower in 1941: "The Mayflower Ice Cream Corporation has bought the two and three-story concrete buildings containing 60,000 square feet on the northerly Forty-third Avenue blockfront from Vernon Boulevard to Ninth Street, Long Island City, Queens from the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank. The property has an area of 55,000 square feet, fronting 200 feet on the avenue and 275 feet on the boulevard and street, and is assessed at $110,000. The Roman Caswell Company was the broker and Max Doner represented the buyer" (New York Herald Tribune, 8 May 1941, pg. 37).
An issue of Popular Science, available on the internet on google books, showed photos of machines at the Mayflower plant processing ice cream on a stick, a Mayflower specialty.
Mayflower was a division of Hershey Farms Inc., a milk distributor in New York. There was also a division called the Hershey Ice Cream Co. These business names are confusingly similar to the far better known Hershey Co., producers of milk chocolates, located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and to Hershey's Ice Cream produced by the Hershey Creamery Co., still in business in 2016 with headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. So far nothing that I have read explains the use of Hershey in the name Hershey Farms Inc. They registered as a New York State corporation in 1931 and are currently (2016) noted as dissolved 1994 at the Dept. of State website. The Mayflower Ice Cream Corp. registered with the New York Dept. of State in 1938 and was dissolved 2009. The initial filing of the Hershey Ice Cream Co. was in 1961 and their dissolution in 2002.
Mayflower as an active manufacturer of ice cream probably went out of business in the mid-1980s. History of Soy Ice Cream and Other Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts (1899-2013), compiled by William Shurtleff & Akiko Aoyai, published by Soyinfo Center, Lafayette, California, 2013, has the following, "La Delite Ltd. (122 E. 42nd St., Suite 601, New York, NY) is scheduled to come to market this week with an offering of 200,000 units of common stock at $15 a unit. Patten Securities of Florham Park, New Jersey, is the underwriter. The initial proceeds will be used to buy the plant and equipment of the Mayflower Ice Cream Corp. (42-25 Vernon Blvd., Long Island City, New York), which has been in bankruptcy for 18 months. ..." Mayflower's listing in the Manhattan telephone directory continued through 1988.
Some of the people connected with the Mayflower Ice Cream Corp. were Hyman Besen (1893-1968), Samuel Lederman (1889-1968), Max Lederman (1899-1960), Milton Lederman (1915-1975), Abraham Kriesberg (1891-1955), and Walter John McCarthy (1894-1954).
Hymen Besen is cited as president of the Mayflower Ice Cream Company in 1950. He registered for the World War II draft in 1942 when he said that he was born 18 March 1893 in Lamburg, Austria, and that he was self employed at 2542 Vernon Blvd., LIC, NY.
The employees and officers of Mayflower Ice Cream Corporation expressed their deepest sympathy to Samuel Lederman and his family, on the death of Samuel Lederman's wife, Augusta Lederman, in 1951. Samuel Lederman registered for the World War II draft in 1942 when he said that he was 53 years old, born 29 March 1889, Austria, and employed at Hershey Farms, 527 W. 36th St. (an office location of Hershey Farms Inc.). An obituary notice in the New York Times, 10 May 1968, pg. 47, read, "Lederman - Samuel. The Executives and Employees of Hershey Farms, Inc. mourn the passing of our beloved associate, employer and friend. A pioneer dairyman in our state who has enriched all our lives through our association with him."
Max Lederman was Samuel Lederman's brother, born in New York City after their father, Aaron Lederman, immigrated to the U.S. His obituary notice in the New York Times, 12 March 1960, pg. 21, read, "Max Lederman, president of Hershey Farms, Inc., Maspeth, Queens, milk producers, died of a heart attack yesterday at his home, 7 West Eighty-first Street. He was 60 years old. For the last twenty years he also had been treasurer of the Mayflower Ice Cream Corporation, Long Island City, Queens. Surviving are his widow, Ada; a daughter, Mrs. Marilyn Klein of Harrison, N.Y.; two brothers, a sister and five grandchildren."
Milton Lederman was Samuel Lederman's son, born 17 November 1915 in New York City. He was president of Mayflower Ice Cream in 1967 when the Officers and Employees of Mayflower Ice Cream Corp. mourned the loss of their esteemed associate, Jacques Friendly (New York Times, 12 Feb. 1967, pg. 93).
Abraham Kriesberg, age 51, registered for the World War II draft in 1942 when he said that he was born 21 June 1891 in Poryslau, Austria, and that he was employed at Hershey Ice Cream Co., 42-25 Vernon Blvd., Queens, NY. In 1955 the officers and employees of Mayflower Ice Cream Corporation mourned the untimely passing of Abraham Kriesberg, their colleague and dear friend (New York Times, 17 Nov. 1955, pg. 35).
Walter J. McCarthy was an accountant associated with Hershey Farms Inc. His obituary notice in the New York Times, 23 Jan. 1954, pg. 13, read in part, "Walter J. McCarthy, senior partner of McCarthy & Burke, New York and Jersey City, accountants, died on Wednesday in his home, 160 Cabrini Boulevard. He age was 59. Mr. McCarthy ... was associated with Hershey Farms milk concern and the Mayflower Ice Cream Corporation ... "
Copyright © 2016 Walter Grutchfield