A Depression-era fire truck got a piggyback ride on a flatbed trailer and rolled through downtown Hopkinsville with cellphone cameras clicking as a small caravan brought the American LaFrance firetruck back to its first home on East Ninth Street.
The 1928 pumper truck rolled easily from the trailer to the street, and with traffic blocked for a few minutes Thursday afternoon, more than a dozen city firefighters surrounded the truck and pushed slowly toward open doors.
“It fits!” someone yelled as they eased the truck into an open spot at the front of the old central fire station below Hopkinsville’s clock tower.
Firefighters helped Christian County Historian William T. Turner climb into the driver’s seat, and Alissa Keller, executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County, climbed up next to him. Then Turner came down to help screw the truck’s metal nameplate to the front of the vehicle.
A reception to officially welcome the American LaFrance back to its original home is set for 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2.
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For the past year, members of the Hopkinsville Fire Department have been working on the old firetruck with the goal of getting it into shape to take up residence at the Woody Winfree Fire and Transportation Museum, which is the city’s former fire station.
Phillip Ferguson, a battalion chief for HFD, helped spearhead the conservation effort. Several firefighters volunteer their time and devoted more than 100 hours to the job. The truck’s engine is not being restored. Rather, it will be on display as an example of its time in Hopkinsville history.
For years, local firefighters saw the old truck sitting idle and collecting dust at the city’s service center. Then a trip to Indianapolis to see firetrucks in a museum prompted talk for doing something with the American LaFrance, he said.
But it was a project years in the making.
Hopkinsville purchased the firetruck new in 1928, and it remained in service through 1940. In its day, the truck could pump 1,000 gallons of water per minute.
Woody Winfree, a collector of fire vehicles, bought the truck in 1968, and it was donated to the Pennyroyal Area Museum in 2004.
Ferguson said he appreciates the legacy of the late Winfree and of Turner, who serves on the governing board of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County and was an enthusiastic supporter of saving the American LaFrance.
“William Turner has helped us save our history,” Ferguson said.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
