At 105 years old, Hartford’s own Kissel fire truck is still mobile. It slowly reversed into its new home at the Wisconsin Automotive Museum, its red paint shining in the July rain.
“It’s very exciting to have it back in Hartford,” said Dawn Bondhus, executive director of the museum.
Bondhus joined WPR’s “The Larry Meiller Show” to talk about the fire truck and other cars on display at the Hartford museum.
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The Vintage Fire Company of Wisconsin acquired the 1920 fire truck, which was at an Arizona museum, Bondhus said. It’ll join a few other Kissel fire trucks on exhibit, including another engine used in Hartford in 1923.
Wisconsin’s car production legacy
Manufacturing cars was all the rage in the earliest part of the 20th century, Bondhus said. In Wisconsin, automakers centered production in the southeastern part of the state, including Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha. They also made some cars in Appleton and Green Bay.
Hartford-based brothers William and George Kissel decided to leave behind their family’s plow company in favor of automobiles in 1906. They started Kissel Motor Car Company, originally called “Badger,” with $50.
Kissel primarily built higher-end cars, Bondhus said, and took pride in manufacturing many of the cars’ components in Hartford, including the engine.
The brothers wanted their cars to exude style and durability.
“It was one of those cars of the stars, so Amelia Earhart, Greta Garbo, William Randolph Hearst, some pretty recognizable names of the time were driving Kissel,” Bondhus said.
The Speedster was Kissel’s trademark model, Bondhus said. It earned the nickname “Gold Bug” because of its signature yellow chrome exterior. Customers were also able to order a Speedster in any color they wanted, a customization for which Kissel was well-known.
Kissel constructed the 1920 fire truck at the height of its success.
Then the Great Depression struck, and car production at Kissel ceased in the 1930s. Today, about 150 complete Kissels remain, and the Wisconsin Automotive Museum has 30 of them.
“What we have is the most you will see in one place, anywhere in the world,” Bondhus said.
The Wisconsin Automotive Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Adults admission is $12 and seniors age 65 and older are $11.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that customers could always order custom colors for the Speedster and that the yellow chrome was its signature color. The story was also updated to remove a reference to how many cars and trucks were produced because the number couldn’t be verified.
