📜 Origin story
Who Invented the Banana Split? Latrobe vs Wilmington
Two small towns, one dessert and a three-year gap. Latrobe has the official recognition. Wilmington has the festival spirit. The old newspapers settle part of it.
By Americanized · Edited by JP Lambiase · October 18, 2026
Latrobe, Pennsylvania, by most accounts. Pharmacy apprentice David Strickler is credited with splitting a banana around three scoops of ice cream at Tassell Pharmacy in 1904, and the National Ice Cream Retailers Association named Latrobe the birthplace in 2004. Wilmington, Ohio, credits restaurant owner Ernest Hazard in 1907, but banana split ads were already in print by 1905.
Latrobe's case: a pharmacy apprentice, 1904
Pennsylvania's state historical marker, put up in 2013 on Latrobe's Ligonier Street, says the first documented banana split was created in 1904 by apprentice pharmacist David Strickler and sold at the former Tassell Pharmacy. Bananas had become widely available to Americans in the late 1800s, it notes, and Strickler cut them lengthwise.
Writing for NPR in 2007, Nancy Baggett reported that Strickler was a 23-year-old clerk and that the split cost 10 cents, twice the price of a regular sundae, according to Latrobe dairyman Joseph Greubel. Strickler finished his pharmacy degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1906. In 2004, Pittsburgh Magazine reports, the National Ice Cream Retailers Association named Latrobe the banana split's birthplace.
Wilmington's case: a winter contest, 1907
Wilmington, Ohio, tells it differently. Ohio Magazine recounts that restaurant owner Ernest Hazard held a contest among his staff on a cold winter day in 1907, hoping for something that would bring Wilmington College students in during the slow months. His own entry won: three scoops in a lengthwise-split banana with chocolate, strawberry and pineapple toppings.
A cousin is said to have supplied the name. Wilmington has celebrated with a Banana Split Festival each June, and in 2017 its police chief, Duane Weyand, told Ohio Magazine that the event serves several thousand splits over two days.
What the old newspapers show
Neither date is backed by a newspaper or menu from the time that researchers have turned up. But word researcher Barry Popik found a Fitchburg, Massachusetts, newspaper ad listing "Banana Split 10c" in October 1905, and notes the dish was showcased at a retail druggists' convention in Boston that fall. By July 1907 a confectioners' trade journal ranked it among the 25 best-selling cold soda fountain items.
That does not prove Latrobe, and Boston has a 1905 claim of its own. It does make a 1907 invention in Wilmington very hard to square with the record. Ice cream collectibles writer Ed Marks put the bigger pattern simply to NPR: "Often, claims just fizzle out."
The build both towns agree on
Whatever the birthplace, the classic is not in dispute. Baggett found both towns agree on vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream; pineapple, strawberry and chocolate sauces; a banana cut lengthwise; and whipped cream, cherries and nuts.
Our classic banana split follows that build, with each sauce matched to one scoop. For the chocolate, use the warm fudge from our hot fudge sundae. It belongs on the Fourth of July table, and the rest of the American scoops are in the ice cream hub.
Questions people ask
What is a banana royale?
The same idea with the banana sliced crosswise into coins instead of split lengthwise. NPR's Baggett notes that splitting it the long way is what makes it a banana split.
Why were early banana splits sold in drugstores?
Soda fountains lived in pharmacies. The Franklin Fountain's history traces Philadelphia's to an 1825 drugstore at Sixth and Chestnut streets, and History Colorado's Rachael Storm told The Gazette that soda was developed and sold by pharmacists. Strickler's split was a soda fountain treat in a pharmacy.
Does Latrobe still celebrate it?
Yes. Latrobe holds the Great American Banana Split Celebration each August, Pittsburgh Magazine reports, with the 2026 event set for August 21 to 23. The local chamber of commerce estimated 20,000 to 30,000 attendees.
Parts of this history are disputed. Where sources disagree, we say so.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, "The Banana Split" marker (2013), transcribed by the Historical Marker Database
- Nancy Baggett, "Late, But Great, Banana Split Centenary," NPR, June 6, 2007 (VPM copy)
- Kristy Graver, "The History of the Banana Split," Pittsburgh Magazine, July 8, 2025
- Nathan Havenner, "Birthplace of the Banana Split," Ohio Magazine, June 2017
- Barry Popik, "Banana Split," The Big Apple
- The Franklin Fountain, "A Treatise" (history of Philadelphia ice cream and soda fountains)
- Seth Boster, "Was the root beer float invented in Cripple Creek?", The Gazette (Colorado Springs), July 28, 2025
More food facts
Cook it
The Classic Banana Split
A banana split lengthwise around scoops of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, topped with pineapple, strawberry and chocolate sauces, whipped cream, peanuts and cherries.
The Hot Fudge Sundae
Vanilla ice cream under a warm, glossy hot fudge made with butter, unsweetened chocolate and Dutch cocoa, finished with whipped cream, toasted nuts and a cherry.
Philadelphia-Style Vanilla Ice Cream
The American eggless ice cream: cream, milk, sugar and vanilla stirred together cold, chilled and churned, with nothing cooked and nothing to temper.
Bittersweet Chocolate Ice Cream
A dark, dense chocolate custard ice cream made with six yolks and six ounces of melted bittersweet chocolate, blended smooth before it chills.
The Root Beer Float (Black Cow)
Two big scoops of vanilla ice cream in a frosted mug, very cold root beer poured slowly over the top until the foam rises.