The Al-Tro park program from 1909 included this ad for Sejo Ice Cream, which made us curious because we’d never heard of it. Perhaps we never heard of it because it was sold only at the ice cream cone stands at Altro Park (it was styled both with and without hyphens; and if you don’t know about Al-Tro, it was a fabulous amusement park in its day, on the river in Menands, reachable by steamboat from both Albany and Troy).
So fancy it had its own march and two-step, perhaps it’s not surprising Al-Tro also had its own ice cream. Unfortunately, we can’t find much about Sejo, and don’t even know what the name means. It was located on Front Street at the foot of Fulton in Troy (though those don’t intersect anymore, making pinpointing it difficult), and was partially destroyed by fire May 13, 1910; the Ice Cream Trade Journal noted that “the stock of tubs is a total loss.” After that, it went into receivership, owing the Union National Bank a sum of money. There was a court case revolving around the insurance claim that is like a rash on Google, but it tells us little more about Sejo. An entry in the 1909 Troy directory tells us its up-to-date plant was a model of cleanliness, and that they had the same number on both phone systems, but that’s about it. Its directory listing doesn’t say anything about being exclusive to Altro Park, however.
