Rocky Hill Fire Museum

A Rocky Future?
Rocky Hill Fire Museum, Rocky Hill (Google Maps location)
October 2024

Connecticut museum visit #525.

There it is. Prominently standing tall in front of Rocky Hill’s library, Congregational church, senior center, Academy Hall Museum, and town hall. Everyone who passes nearby sees it: The Rocky Hill Fire Museum.

The only problem is that it’s only open by appointment these days. So it’s a tease… standing there for all to see, but difficult to visit.

I had emailed the town’s fire department liaison’s multiple times for years trying to gain access. I never, ever got a response. Then in September 2024 I remembered that sometimes using the telephone is a thing that people do and I called the number to volunteer for the fire department.

I was asked to leave my name and number and someone named Dave would give me a call. So I did just that and imagine my glee upon answering my phone away for work in none other than Muskoka, Ontario to hear from Mysterious Dave.

Turns out, Dave isn’t at all mysterious and is in fact the wonderful Mr. David Hawkins, now retired from a 40-year Rocky Hill firefighting stint. Flash forward and month and here we are: at the Rocky Hill Fire Museum.

(This was a little more exciting than usual for me as it was the final place for me to visit in order to “complete” the small town.)

Hawkins, a former captain and firefighter of the year, retired from active service in 1996 after 40 years in the department. During that period — among the longest tenures in department history — he saw the town and its fire service grow. And he was more than happy to share his memories with me in the small museum at the former fire house.

His father was fire chief in town when Dave was a child. Back then, the rural farming community had only one 24-hour switchboard at the hospital… so fires would be reported there and they would call the Hawkins home to report the fire.

Dave joined the department on his 18th birthday. His love for the service is clear to this day.

Back in the 1940’s and 50’s, most calls were for brush fires from farmers. Today, with I-91 coursing through town, dozens of large apartment complexes, and Connecticut River traffic, the calls are much more urgent and complicated.

The museum is housed on the ground floor of the original fire station built around 1930. It was constructed back then by the volunteer fire department… and refurbished nearly a century later by volunteers for the volunteer fire department.

This building served Rocky Hill for 35 years until it was decommissioned in 1962. Way back then the idea of turning it into a museum was formed. (It was to be knocked down in favor of the four extra parking spots it would allow for the new town hall.) The fire chief at the time said “no” and saved the building which finally opened as a museum in 2010 after 15 years of restoration effort.

A museum that, according to the visitor log, hadn’t been visited between June 12th and my visit on October 10th. Such is life for tiny, appointment only, niche museums these days. (It is visited by local elementary school every year at least.) It is immaculate and Dave Hawkins clearly loves it.

There are old fire alarms, a forest fire warden badge from the 1940s and old firefighter helmets. Sitting on a shelf is a Plectron, a single-channel radio that firefighters kept at their homes so they’d know when there was a fire.

The centerpiece is, of course, the 1940 Maxim Fire Engine. It is beautiful. Fully restored, again by volunteers including Dave himself. Every hour on its restoration was painstakingly logged, perhaps the most impressive item in the entire museum. It runs fine and is used in annual parades and such. I was pointed to the fine gold leaf work which isn’t easy to come by these days.

My favorite part of it, by far, is this:

Aside from the truck, there is some old firefighting equipment here and there, but this place is so small that they can’t house all that much. A display case of old firetruck toys is pretty cool, but aside from that, there’s really not all that many material items.

The true museum is in David Hawkins’ head. at 86 years old at the time of my visit, Dave was sharp and quick-witted. And still skilled in both mechanics and woodworking (He hand-built the museum’s oak display cabinets which were upcycled from old furniture from the nearby church.) He watched Rocky Hill grow from 3,000 residents to 23,000. He saw I-91 laid out and completed. And he’s seen lots of fires – and the vast improvements in equipment to fight them.

We had a very nice conversation about small museums and small town historical societies and what is going to happen to them in the all-too-near future. Many will disappear, like the Cellar Savers Fire Museum in nearby Portland that Dave lamented losing relatively recently. He feels a bit more confident about Rocky Hill’s museum because the town supports it, whereas that wasn’t the case in Portland.

Still, you and I both know we’ll be losing lots of these types of museums over time… that rocky future makes me sad of course, but also gives me a bit more oomph to call these places directly to document them here on CTMQ.

It’s the least I can do. It’s not like I’m saving lives like the David Hawkinses of the world have done.

CTMQ’s Museum Visits