📜 Origin story
Who Invented the Ice Cream Sundae? Two Rivers vs Ithaca
A Wisconsin soda fountain and a New York pharmacy have been arguing over the sundae for decades. One town has the older date. The other has the older paper trail.
By Americanized · Edited by JP Lambiase · October 18, 2026
Two Rivers and Ithaca both claim it. Two Rivers, Wisconsin, says soda fountain owner Ed Berners topped ice cream with chocolate syrup in 1881. Ithaca, New York, says druggist Chester Platt served a "Cherry Sunday" on April 3, 1892. Ithaca has the older paper trail, a newspaper ad from April 5, 1892, while Two Rivers leans on local tradition and a 1939 obituary.
Two Rivers: chocolate syrup, 1881
The Wisconsin Historical Society's 1973 marker in Two Rivers' Central Park tells the town's version. In 1881 George Hallauer asked soda fountain owner Edward Berner to pour chocolate sauce, until then used only in ice cream sodas, over a dish of ice cream. It cost a nickel and at first was sold only on Sundays.
Then, the marker says, a 10-year-old girl insisted on a dish any day of the week, and the treat went daily in many flavors. The town keeps the story alive with a tribute parlor at its Washington House Museum, WBAY reported in 2026. Most accounts spell his name Berners.
Ithaca: the Cherry Sunday, 1892
Ithaca's story starts after church on Sunday, April 3, 1892. Chester Platt, owner of Platt & Colt Pharmacy, and the Rev. John Scott of the Unitarian church came in for ice cream, and it was topped with cherry syrup and a candied cherry, Corey Ryan Earle writes in Cornell's alumni magazine. They called it a Cherry Sunday.
The History Center in Tompkins County calls the ad that ran in the Ithaca Daily Journal two days later the oldest primary source evidence of the sundae anywhere. Earle adds that Platt & Colt ran six Cherry Sunday ads in the Cornell Daily Sun over the next two weeks and that Platt tried to trademark the name by 1894. Ithaca also points to a store ledger and a signed 1936 statement from the shop's clerk, DeForest Christiance.
Weighing the evidence
In a 2007 NPR segment, two Ithaca High School researchers said Two Rivers' main document is a 1939 Chicago Tribune obituary for Berners, which put his invention about 40 years earlier, closer to 1899 than 1881. They added that genealogical records make him about 16 or 17 in 1881. Two Rivers' city manager, Greg Buckley, told NPR the town stands by 1881.
Ithaca's own dates have wobbled too. In an older exchange replayed on that NPR program, the city's historian at the time placed the invention on a summer afternoon in 1897. The documents the city now cites say 1892, so 1892, by Ithaca's records, is the fair way to put it. The Cornell Daily Sun found no winner declared in 2006, and the rivalry is still running: WBAY's 2026 report still calls Two Rivers the birthplace.
Why is it spelled sundae?
Nobody has proven it. The usual explanation is that Sunday was respelled to avoid offending churchgoers, and author Anne Cooper Funderburg told Mental Floss the change almost certainly happened for that reason. The Two Rivers marker credits a glassware salesman who ordered "Sundae dishes." Christiance later wrote that a syrup maker introduced the spelling, Earle reports, and the word sundae was in print by 1902.
To taste the Wisconsin version, pour chocolate over vanilla, or go richer with our hot fudge sundae. For Ithaca's, skip the fudge and use cherry syrup and a candied cherry over Philadelphia-style vanilla. The sundae's best-known descendant is the banana split, and the rest are in the ice cream hub.
Questions people ask
Which came first, the sundae or the ice cream soda?
The soda. Robert M. Green's stand at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute celebration in 1874 popularized the ice cream soda, according to the Franklin Fountain's history. Both sundae stories begin with soda fountain syrups poured over plain ice cream instead.
What was on the first sundae?
It depends on the town. Two Rivers says chocolate sauce over ice cream. Ithaca says vanilla ice cream with cherry syrup and a candied cherry.
Do other places claim the sundae?
Yes. Mental Floss lists claims from Evanston, Illinois, New Orleans, New York, Buffalo and Cleveland, among others. Earle notes that few of them come with historical evidence, and the long-running rivalry is between Two Rivers and Ithaca.
Parts of this history are disputed. Where sources disagree, we say so.
Sources
- Wisconsin Historical Society, "Ice Cream Sundae" marker no. 197 (1973), transcribed by the Historical Marker Database
- NPR Weekend Edition, "The Great Ice Cream Sundae Debate," transcript, June 30, 2007
- Corey Ryan Earle, "The Straight Scoop on the Origins of the Ice Cream Sundae," Cornellians, April 15, 2025
- BrierMae Ossont, "A Short History of Ithaca's Sweetest Industry," The History Center in Tompkins County
- Jeff Wells, "The Great Debate Over the Origin of the Ice Cream Sundae," Mental Floss, March 22, 2022
- Elyse Noe, "WE THE PEOPLE: The lakeshore birthplace of the ice cream sundae," WBAY, January 28, 2026
- "Ithaca, Two Rivers square off over sundae origin," The Cornell Daily Sun, September 5, 2006
- The Franklin Fountain, "A Treatise"
More food facts
Cook it
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.
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.
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.
Classic Vanilla Custard Ice Cream (Jefferson's Recipe, Updated)
The rich American vanilla: a cream-heavy custard with five yolks cooked to 170 to 175°F, the same idea as the recipe Thomas Jefferson wrote out by hand.
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.