Corbitt Preservation brings fire truck home

Story and photos by Charles E. Powell, President
Corbitt Preservation Association

We had our first “Corbitt Truck Show and Reunion” in 2002.

We first heard of this truck that year while we were searching for Corbitt vehicles to bring to this show. We were told that a 1930 Corbitt fire truck was located somewhere in Maryland, possibly in Baltimore. I began a long search with clues given to me by Steve Rosemond of Hillsboro, North Carolina.

After many, many phone calls and making contact with people, I finally was led to a museum called “The Museum of Americana” located in Pokemoke City, Maryland. Julie Widdowson (she was a Horner then), the Somerset County Tourism Director, said that indeed they had a Corbitt fire truck in their possession. The owner of the museum, Mr. Burgess, had passed away about four years earlier and had willed the museum and its contents to her organization. It turned out to be a 1926 original Corbitt fire truck built on a government contract for the Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. Mr. Burgess bought the truck from the hospital in the 1960’s when it was taken out of service. He brought it back to his museum and had stored it away in one of his buildings where it sat until we moved it on August 8, 2009.

We started negotiations to buy this truck in 2003. After many failed attempts to come to some type of agreement, and including many third parties, we finally came to terms in March of 2009. After a nightmare of a time transporting this ol’ gal home, she finally made it back to the place of her birth, Henderson, after 83 years! She’s finally home again where she will be proudly displayed at our events and our show on October 17, 2009.

We are hoping someone or somebody will step forward and help us with the cost of this restoration as we are a small non-profit organization with limited funds. Any help with this project will be appreciated and honor given where deserved. In any event, you’ll be able to see the truck for the first time at our show in October of this year.

Corbitt Preservation Association members who went to Maryland to bring the truck back home were:

Charles E. Powell

Bruce Essick

Mac Renn

John Hedgepeth

Thelma Hedgepeth

Curtis Paul