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There are many cruise-ins and car shows held all times of the year all over the country, but organizers of the Hamilton-Fairfield Antique & Classic Car Parade say that Butler County should be proud to host one of the few events of its kind.

"There are a few parades here and there, one in New England that I know of," said spokesman Virgil Jones. "But none of them are as large and don't have the same kind of community involvement as this one does."

Now in its 54th year, the Antique & Classic Car Parade has become such a tradition that many people who remember attending the event with their grandparents are now taking their grandchildren.

"There are many families that wouldn't miss it for the world," Jones said.

The parade typically attracts about 350 cars annually, but this year the number may be much higher, Jones said.

"Because this year is the centennial of the Model T Ford, we decided to focus on that and make it our lead car," Jones said.

When the Model T was introduced by Ford in 1908 it marked the automobile's entry into popular usage as a relatively low-cost, reliable form of transportation.

As it happens, the Ford Model T Club of America has been holding its own celebration all this week in Indiana, attracting more than 900 advance registrations from Model T owners as far away as Australia and France, and word is out that many of these Model Ts will join Colerain resident Dan Kinne's lead car in Saturday's parade.

Kinne, who has been collecting and restoring antique cars since he was a teenager and now owns two Model Ts, purchased "Evelyn" about two years ago, he said, and it took the first year to get her into shape.

Evelyn, so-named because she was built in 1911, cost $780 new, Kinne said, from a Ford dealership in Osgood, Ind., but that was before Henry Ford started assembly line production in 1914, which gradually brought the cost of a new Model T down to $230 by 1923.

When the original owner traded Evelyn in for a 1915 Model T, she sat in a back building on the dealer's lot, except for an annual parade around town, until Hamilton lawyer Hugh Holbrook purchased the car in the 1970s. Holbrook was well-known for his collection of horse-drawn carriages, and never drove the car while he owned it. When Holbrook died in 2002, she was sold at auction to a friend of Kinne's, who decided after a couple of years that he wouldn't be able to do the restoration work.

It took Kinne nine months to take her apart and put her back together as she was (more or less) in 1911.

"She was original," he said, "in rough shape, but complete. I took it completely apart, every nut and bolt, and put her back just the way she was, down to the pinstripes, with one exception."

That exception, he said, was that he spent the extra money on curly cherry wood for the dashboard instead of plain cherry.

"Some people like to turn them into hot rods," Kinne said, "but I like my cars to be original."

With her gas head lamps, leather seats and very loud horns, Evelyn is quite a conversation starter, Kinne said, and inquiring minds are often surprised to learn that Evenlyn gets about 25 miles a gallon. Just about every weekend Kinney and his family are taking her somewhere, as far away as a recent trip to Natural Bridge in Kentucky, for instance, or this week's Model T convention and celebration in Richmond, many times with his club, NoKen Ts (a reference to the Northern Kentucky base of operations for the group).

CONTACT this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

54th annual

Antique Classic

Car Parade

Saturday, July 26

Cars assemble at 8 a.m. at Hamilton West Shopping Center, Main Street and Brookwood Avenue and remain on view until noon

Parade begins at 1 p.m., proceeding north on Brookwood, right onto Washington Boulevard, right onto Eaton Avenue, left onto Main Street, across the High-Main Bridge, right onto Second Street, right onto Pleasant Avenue to Patterson Boulevard and Fair Plaza.

Cars remain on view at Fair Plaza until 2:30 p.m. when the parade resumes north onto Pleasant Avenue and proceeding to the vicinity of the Butler County Courthouse from Front to Third streets along Court and Ludlow avenues.

Fort Hamilton Jazz Band performs on the Courthouse Lawn, 3 to 4 p.m.

Awards presented on Courthouse Lawn, 4 p.m.

ONLINE

Can't make the parade? We'll have hundreds of photos posted Saturday afternoon, only at journal-news.com.

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