Fire Engine Geraldine 'Is Ours Again!' Group Announces

An antique fire truck originally donated to Madison in 1921 officially belongs to the Borough of Madison again, a group that organized fundraising efforts for the purchase announced Thursday.

"It's official... Geraldine is once again titled and registered in New Jersey and is ours again!!" the nonprofit Friends of Geraldine posted on their Facebook page, along with a photo of the Ahrens Fox P4 engine's new Garden State municipal government license plate.

More than $75,000 in private donations were raised and a matching Morris County grant was awarded to purchase the truck from a private collection in Massachussetts, but officials still needed to complete the necessary paperwork to finalize the $150,000 transaction.

The truck was donated to the borough by philanthropist Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge after a fire in a barn on her Madison estate, Giralda Farms, killed some of her beloved horses.

The truck outlived its usefulness as a firefighting apparatus, was sold and, after a roundabout journey, wound up sitting in a private collection in Massachusetts for decades until a group of Madison firefighters and history enthusiasts tracked it down and brought it back to Madison on loan about a year ago.

They brought it back with the goal of raising enough money to purchase the truck from the collector and keep it in Madison for good.

Fire Chief Lou DeRosa said "Geraldine" won't fight fires in the usual sense, but will serve as a tool to educate people about the history of firefighting, teach children about fire safety, recruit members, and preserve a piece of Madison's history.