In preparation for Inspection Day, the companies would spend weeks scrubbing, primping, and polishing, and on Inspection Day, city officials and city residents would stroll along Warren Street from Front Street to Park Place, visiting the firehouses, viewing their handsome interiors, and admiring the shiny apparatus used to fight fires. The next day, the firemen, nattily decked out in their dress uniforms, would march with their gleaming fire engines down the main street of Hudson. Awards were presented to the company that presented itself most impressively.

The tradition of Inspection Day continues today, although with only four fire companies, three of which are located in Hudson’s new consolidated fire station on North Sixth Street, the promenade aspect of Inspection Day has been sacrificed, but the Inspection Day Parade continues essentially unchanged. It is the opportunity for the volunteer fire companies of Hudson and volunteer fire companies from around the county to pass in review before the elected officials of Hudson and residents they serve and to receive the cheers and applause they so richly deserve.