This vintage photo shows the Mount Vernon fire truck from around the late 1920s or early 1930s. Credit: Knox Time Collection

History Knox

Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a column each Saturday focused on the history of the community.

MOUNT VERNON — While I don’t have a Christmas scene to ring in the season this year, I did find a picture with a bell in it.

This vintage photograph from the Knox Time Collection shows the Mount Vernon Fire Department’s engine from the period of time when the main fire station was on the square, downtown.

The photo is not dated, though it is clearly an early style of fire truck, with an open cab and what looks like some sort of automatic bell. It is also considerably smaller in size than the huge trucks we have today.

This 1928 American LaFrance model 146 has some similarities and some differences with the Mount Vernon truck. This model 146 was restored in 2018 and sold for $59,000 as these pumpers are getting very rare. (Image source: FentonFire.com)

Original contributors on the Knox Time page tried to narrow down what make of vehicle the fire truck might be. One suggested a Mack truck from somewhere in the 1920s or 30s, but poster Laura Holsinger-Jonsson confidently identified it as a 1928 American LaFrance fire truck.

Examination of online images of 1928 American LaFrance models shows a range of variations in detail, but all the modern images show in one version or other all the main details of the Mount Vernon truck.

The one difference is that the vintage photo does not appear to show the American LaFrance logo on the radiator.

This makes me wonder if perhaps the truck suffered an accident at some point, which could have demolished the decorative plaque, which would not have been replaced if a new radiator would have to be installed.

Note that this was still early enough in automobile history that the truck has a hand crank to start it.

This 1928 American LaFrance (model number unknown) is closer in detail to the Mount Vernon truck. This model includes a manually-rung bell. I suspect the attachment in roughly the same position on the Mount Vernon truck is an automatic bell. (Image Source: Pinterest)

For those two young to have ever operated one of those cranks, be aware that they were tricky and powerful. If it whipped around on you, its force could break your arm. Automatic starters would soon be joyfully welcomed.

If this is indeed a 1928 model, it already looks a little dusty from use. So the actual date of the picture may come from a couple years later.

If it dates from as late as 1930, the Great Depression would have been settling in, meaning that money may have been scarce to replace it until the late 1930s.

Thus, this picture could still date anywhere from 1928 to 1938, in my estimation.

The gentlemen in the truck are not identified. If anyone can identify them, please let us know.