COLLECTIONS

Summer is here and there’s no better way to cool off than enjoying your favorite ice cream flavor. This month we look back at Peterson’s Creamery and Fountain which was located at Eleventh and B Streets in Tracy. This product package and mold were used for their holiday ice cream nut rolls. The rolls featured Peterson’s rich custard ice cream coated in chocolate and rolled in chopped nuts. The centers of the rolls were themed for the holidays, featuring a sherbet shamrock for St. Patrick’s Day, a sherbet rabbit for Easter, a chocolate-flavored turkey for Thanksgiving, and peppermint-flavored Christmas tree for Christmas.

Clarence W. “Pete” Peterson, the son of Danish immigrants, was born and raised in Iowa. He studied at Iowa State College and operated two creameries before coming to California. Pete and his wife, Elizabeth, came to Tracy in 1923 where he managed Vogue Creamery on West Tenth Street. In 1925, they purchased the creamery and moved it to the corner of Eleventh and B streets in Tracy. The creamery occupied most of the building, but Elizabeth also ran a small restaurant which served a limited menu of hot lunches and malted milk, as well as fresh baked pastries and cakes.

In 1927, Pete and Elizabeth expanded the creamery to include ice cream that was manufactured by Peterson Ice Cream Company and branded as “Peterson’s Vogue Ice Cream.” It was sold in the restaurant, as well as to local businesses like the Tracy Inn. The ice cream came in a variety of flavors including vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, maple nut, banana nut, raspberry cream, orange sherbet, orange ice, pineapple ice, and lemon ice. Ice cream flavors were sold in quart, pint, and brick sizes. Individual ice cream cups, popsicles, and ice cream bars were also available. Peterson also produced and sold ice cream mixes that contained the basic ingredients for ice cream. These were marketed to smaller creameries and ice cream shops who could use to mix to create their own flavors to sell under their own brands.

Peterson had distribution locations in Oakland and Modesto to accommodate customers in the Bay Area. Their ice cream was in such demand that in May of 1928, Pete contracted with a local pilot to fly an emergency order of 300 pounds of ice cream and 1,000 cones to his retailers in Pittsburg, California because delivery drivers were busy covering their normal routes. The delivery went so smoothly that Pete said he would consider using air service in the future to make deliveries.

By the 1940s, Peterson purchased the Manteca Creamery in Manteca to serve as a distribution plant and the Delta Ice Cream Company, the largest manufacturer of ice cream in Stockton. By this time, Peterson was using 80,000 gallons of milk per month to manufacture 20,000-25,000 gallons of ice cream mix, which was shipped to retailers as far north as Willits and as far south as Coalinga.

In February 1954, Pete retired and sold Peterson Ice Cream Company to the Milk Producers Association (MPA) of Central California, a Modesto-based dairy cooperative of over 900 producers-members. Under the terms of the sale, ice cream would continue being produced under the Peterson brand and Peterson’s employees would be retained. MPA of Central California leased the building on West Eleventh and B streets from Peterson and continued manufacturing ice cream there until 1958, when they leased the property to Berkeley Farms. In 1962, Berkeley Farms moved its ice cream production to Modesto.