Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 7, 2025 19 flood risk. "We are proud to partner with Gowans-Knight Co. and look forward to seeing their continued success," Lewis said. The Palmers say they are not quite certain what to do with their other building on Knight Street. They've had offers from locals who are aware of the occasional flooding risk. But they prefer to work with town officials to leverage a flood-relief program that would allow the federal government to purchase and demolish the building in the flood-prone area. Historic roots Gowans-Knight Co. launched in 1948 in a one-bay garage rented from a car dealership on Watertown's Main Street. At the time, the company focused on general metal fabrication and welding, servicing brass factories. Owners Dave Gowans and Cecile "Bill" Knight officially incorporated the company in 1953. Their two employees, Clarke Palmer and Tom Alexander, bought into part-ownership early on. Palmer was a volunteer Watertown firefighter, and, in 1963, he was approached by the Northfield Fire Department to design and fabricate a brush truck — a small firefighting vehicle meant to tackle fires in dense vegetation and rough terrain — on a $2,500 budget. Word spread from there and more fire departments began asking Gowans-Knight to build bodies for their firefighting vehicles. That work, and maintenance of fire trucks, became an increasing focus of the business. Palmer, in the early 1970s, spear- headed Gowans-Knight's entry as a dealer for firefighting apparatuses made by Virginia-based Oren Fire Apparatus and Pennsylvania-based Ladder Towers Inc. Clarke Palmer's son — Craig Palmer Sr., the current Gowans-Knight president — worked part-time at the company since he was a teen and joined full-time after graduating from Massachusetts' Becker College in 1980. That's where he met his future wife, Day. In 1986, Clarke Palmer and his son bought out the company's remaining shares, making it exclusively a family enterprise. It also marked the year the company began focusing on the production, sales and servicing of firefighting vehicles and equipment. It was a good move, as the big Connecticut brass companies that had once formed the backbone of Gowans-Knight's work disappeared in the second half of the 20th century. "If we didn't go into firefighting equipment there would be nothing left," Palmer Sr. said. Gowans-Knight began building fire engine bodies from stainless steel in the 1980s — products that have withstood the test of time, Palmer Sr. said. "Some of those 40-year-old bodies are coming back to us to be refitted to new chassis and repainted," he said. The shop floor of Gowans-Knight's current Watertown facility at 49 Knight St. The company will be moving to a new headquarters in town, at 50 Seemar Road. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER

• Cover