Matthew Ryan supplied ice to the Town of Smiths Falls for years. He obtained a lease and built the first icehouse at the detached lock in October 1895. He had competition a few years later, as Frances Hourigan also received a lease to build an icehouse. Mathew Ryan’s father-in-law James Shanks bought both businesses and then sold them to John E. Joynt in June, 1918. The original business consisted of a 140-foot by 30-foot building with an addition in the centre and stables for the delivery horses. Twenty to thirty labourers would harvest 5000 tons of ice from the canal each year. The ice was cut into two-foot by three-foot blocks with a hand saw, which were transported from the canal to the icehouse.

In the late 1890s, Ryan converted his farm on Jasper Road into a public park. “Ryan’s Park” was surrounded by woods and had a magnificent view of the Rideau River. It featured an impressive, half mile oval racetrack with a grandstand and was far enough out of town to allow for a discreet drink or other forms of debauchery. In 1924, “Ryan’s Park” was acquired by a group of local citizens known as the Strathcona Park Association. The Association made extensive improvements and changed the name to “Strathcona Park.” At Old Home Week in 1925, the Association boasted “of having one of the best racetracks in Eastern Ontario.” By the 1960s the area was commonly referred to as “Ryan’s Park” again. In the 1970s, it became a housing subdivision. A portion of the racetrack is now Colonel By Crescent.