An influx of Irish Catholic railroad workers after the Civil War energized the effort to establish St. Philip Catholic Church in 1871. Growth in the 1970s necessitated the series of buildings you see today encompassing four separate sanctuaries, all built between 1977 and 1997. Prior to the church, the property was owned by John Eaton, a Franklin lawyer, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of War under President Andrew Johnson. Eaton and his wife Peggy became embroiled in a scandal that almost brought down the Jackson administration.

Landmark Booksellers is housed in one of the oldest remaining buildings in Franklin, and the earliest example of Greek Revival architecture in Tennessee. After the Battle of Franklin, the building was used as a field hospital for both Union and Confederate soldiers. Today Landmark Booksellers is one of the leading independent booksellers in the South, who's owners were the inspiration for the New York Times bestselling novel by Karen Kingsbury, The Bridge.

Jeremiah Shea arrived in Franklin after the Civil War to wrk on the railroad and was one of the founders and builders of St. Philip Catholic Church. The Sheas later got into the grocery business, operating a store out of the Old Factory Store. The Shea House was demolished in 1950 and replaced by Franklin Motor Court, an early motel. The propery is now home to Landmark Community Bank.

John Truett operated a livery stable in the early 20th century at this location. He first stabled horses here, then cars. In 1919 with the advent of prohibition, Truett became the bootlegging kingpin of Williamson County by controlling 10 stills in the county. In 1925, a local constable named Sam Locke led federal marshals on a raid of Truett's stable where liquor was found. The next day, Locke was found dead in his car, dead of two gunshot wounds. Truett was arrested and charged with murder-for-hire, as was Jim Kelton, who claimed that Truett offered him $500 to shoot Locke. Because there were racial issues--Locke was white, Kelton was black--the Ku Klux Klan marched into the town, and the case was called Franklin's "trial of the century." In the end, Kelton was convicted of murder and was sentenced to life in prision. Truett was acquitted. Most people agreed he'd gotten away with murder and later he was convicted of violating the Volstead Act, and paid fines of $2,500.

On May Day 1907, construction began on an interurban commuter railway to connect Franklin and Nashville, which was completed over a year later on Christmas Eve, 1908. The Nashville-Franklin Interurban ran from May 1909 until November 1941 as an electric trolley. Better roads and the automobile eventually drove the Interurban out of business. This unique venue made its last run on November 9, 1941.

The middle building built in the Victorian Style was the Mays Hotel and later the Post Hotel. A night at the hotel cost 10 cents, but in 1900, that did not guarantee a private room. The building in the corner was the original City Hall where the police, fire department, city recorder, and one jail cell were. A fire was always a possibiliy with open-hearth cooking and heating of the day so early town laws required everyone keep a 5-gallon bucket of water handy and store their gunpowder far away from the fireplace.

In the 1920s, The Franklin Kiwanis Club named Franklin "Tennessee's Most Handsome Town" to encourage business expansion. Today visitors agree that Franklin is one of the prettiest towns in the United States. An early 1990s Streetscape project complements the architecture with period lighting, plantings, and public improvements resulting in the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarding Franklin one of the five Great Ameriacn Main Street awards for its outstanding downtown revitalization. Although it's difficult to imagine today, at one time Franklin was in a sad state of disrepair. Sidewalks were cracked and broken, and metal sheeting covered the façades of some of the Victorian buildings.

In the years following the Civil War, cities and towns across the nation began to erect memorials for their war dead. Several Franklin women founded a chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy, raising $2,700 to purchase this monument; it took 17 years of bake sales and quilting bees to raise the money. The group chose November 30, 1899 - the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Franklin - as the day for the dedication. A few days beforehand, the statue arrived on the train. After placing it on a wagon and hauling it up to the square, workers began hoisting it up to its place on the column. Something - no one really knows what - caused the statue to slip from the ropes and crash against the base, breaking off a piece of the hat's brim. Five days later, before a crowd of 10,000, the statue was unveiled, broken hat and all. The statue represents an anonymous infantryman at rest; locals now call him 'Chip.'

While the Battle of Franklin gets many visitors’ attention when they’re in town, it’s important to note that Franklin’s history includes much more than a Civil War battle. More than half of Franklin’s population before the Civil War was African American, and their struggles to survive and thrive here both before and after the Civil War deserve to be told. In an effort to do just that, Franklin area pastors and community leaders have rallied support and funds over the last few years to erect several historical markers and a statue around the public square acknowledging the events of the past, honoring the U.S. Colored Troops and the nearly 300 Black men in Williamson County who joined them, and serving as an education to residents and visitors alike about what’s become known here as “The Fuller Story.”

Constructed in 1876, this building was originally the T.K. Fleming Company, a furniture stores, before being purchased in1930 by Franklin Gray, Jr., and D.C. Kinnard who turned it into Kinnard Gray Drug Company. It became Gray Drug Co., in the 1940s and the iconic sign was installed in 1952. In 1998 the pharmacy was sold and Gray's Cards and Gifts opened. The neon sign was changed from Gray's Drug Co., to simply Gray's. After closing in 2003, the building sat vacant for 10 years before becoming the restaurant Gray's on Main. Today this restaurant and music hall with original floors, tin ceilings, and Gray's memorabilia maintains the building's original character.

Constructed in 1899, the building's wrought iron eave and belt course are its most significant decorative detailing and have a distinctively Irish flavor to it. In 1831, Michael Doyle bought the southern part of the original town play on which the White Building now stands. He and Hugh Dempsey were in the grocery business and both were from Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. (new paragraph) Dr. John B. White ran a drugstore and had a medical office in this building until 1928. In the early 1930s, the Regen, Bethurum, and Padgett Funeral Home occupied the building, as did the Williamson Leader before the Heirloom Shop moved here in 1989.

Allen Nelson Crutcher Williams opened the first African American owned business in downtown Franklin in 1863, while still enslaved, operating a shoe repair business on the square to fix the boots of occupying Union soliders. After attaining his freedom in 1865, he purchased a lot on Second Avenue in 1867 and then another lot where he constructed a building and opened a general merchandise store. Williams operated his store for sixty-four years, opening catering to both black and white patrons despite Jim Crow laws and segregation. The store held the distinction as the longest continually operating business on Main Street. About 1870, Williams founded Franklin's first church for former slaves by a former slave and became its preacher.

Civil War Surgeon Dr. W.M. Gentry had the Gentry Building constructed in 1905 by Franklin contractor Green Williams. In 1937 Miss Susie sold the building to Mr. L.A.McCall who had his grocery store at that location for many years. His son, Mr. Tom McCall, owned McCall Electric and used part of the building to store televiions at one time.

If you ask people why this building is called the White Building, they'll probably tell you because it's white. That's not the reason, Dr. John White who used it as his office built the building. It was his third building on Main Street. Today the building houses businesses and offices, which run on electricity produced by 64 solar panels on the roof. Also on the roof is a large sign that used to stand on the roof of the original Notel Hotel in Nashville. During the Christmas season, the sign is raised and visible down Main Street.

Reverend James Otey founded the "mother church" of the Tennessee Episcopal Church in 1827. Originally the building had a second floor - slave galleries over the ground floor seating. During the Union army occupation of Franklin from 1862-1865, the church did not have a resident rector or regular services, so the Union army used this building as barracks, then as a field hospital, and finally as a stable. In 1869, reconstruction began on the church. At that time the roof was lowered and the slave galleries removed. Church members donated eight stained glass windows from the glassmaking studio of Louis Comfort Tiffany to the church from 1902-15. They are the three over the altar, the trio on the right and two on the left, as you face the altar. The remaining windows are no Tiffany because when the great artisan died in 1938, he took his glassmaking secrets to the grave. Today the St. Paul's Church has the distinction as the oldest church building in Franklin.

The Franklin Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized about 1871; this building dates to 1876. Hugh Cathcart Thompson of Franklin, who would later achieve fame as the architect of Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the "Mother Church of Country Music," designed the structure in the style of gothic revival. The handmade pews with wooden pegs are original to the church; the stained glass is of more recent origin. It and major renovations to the church were carried out in 1995.

Visitors will discover artifacts from the days of old that tell the story of Williamson County. The recreated Main Street display and the military room are filled with interesting objects from the Civil War through World War II. Vintage clothing, quilts, photos, military uniforms, tools, and more are on display. The archives section includes record holdings of marriage licenses and bonds, wills and probates, tax records, deeds, and much more.

The Veterans' Park honors Williamson County servicemen who served in American wars from the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War. Bricks are inscribed with each solider's name and conflict. The largest brick is in honor of George Jordan, the only Williamson Countian to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Born a slave, Jordan joined the U.S. Army after the Civil War, and became a Buffalo Solider, fighting the Indian Wars in New Mexico. In command of 19 men, Sgt. Jordan held his ground in an exposed position and forced back a larger number of the enemy, precenting them from surrounding the command. This park is home to a restored cannon that was dedicated on November 12, 2007. This rare cannon is a 3.2 inch Field Gun Model. The muzzle was manufactured in 1892 at the Watervliet Arsenal in Albany, New York and weighs 832 pounds. The carriage was built in 1887 at the National Armory in Springfield, MA.

Gideon Blackburn organized the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin in 1811 and built the first church on a lot north of the City Cemetery on Fourth Avenue. By 1942, the church purchased this lot and bild the first of three sanctuaries at this location. The first, brick with slave galleries, was badly damaged after the Union Army used it as a field hospital after the Battle of Franklin. By 1887, a new church was built and later burned to the ground in 1905 before being rebuilt to look just like its predecessor. First Presbyterian Church moved to Franklin Road two miles north of Franklin in 1995 and the Historic Presbyterian Church now is at this location.

Originally a livery stable, the large open arched entrance allowed horses and buggies to enter and leave the building. Later, the livery stable closed, driven out of bsuiness by the transportation innovation first called the "horseless carriage." The natural transition for this building was Hardcastle Motors, a car dealership and gas station, with the pumps right out on the street. As time passed, the building's size no longer sufficed for a car dealership, and it transitioned into Elmore's Furniture store, and now Bink's Outfitters.

The Franklin Theatre opened in 1937 as the first air-conditioned building in town with a seating capacity of 600 downstairs and 130 in the balcony, which during the era of Jim Crow, was for black patrons. The opening feature was "Night Must Fall," starring Montgomery Clift and Rosalind Russell. Admission was a dime for children and a quarter for adults. It showed movies for 70 years on Main Street and in the early days even served as a Vaudeville-style theatre. The theatre has reopened as a multi-purpose venue for music, movies and community events; the marquee is a reproduction of the original 1937 marquee. The Franklin Theatre continues the tradition of showing movies, but also added a new dimension to Main Street - live music concerts and live stage theater performances.

The building that is now home to Puckett's was built in the early 1900's. In 1913, it was a blacksmith shop and in the 1920's, it was the first Chrysler dealership in the county and a general automotive repair shop, Franklin Garage. Imagine the old garage by looking at the large front windows of the restaurant where the garage used to be. Before Puckett's opened, the building housed a bicycle shop. Today, Puckett's is Williamson County's most decorated restaurant, receiving numerous awards for excellent food, service, and live music.

Dr. Dan German purchased a frame house at this location in 1937 to establish a clinic, veneering the exterior with fieldstone. The Review-Appeal newspaper best described the hospital's opening in 1938: "This clinic fills a long needed hospitalization facility for Williamson County. The building is modern in every respect and contains 12 rooms, consisting of offices for the three doctors, waiting rooms for both white and colored, operating, x-ray and treatment rooms, four rooms for patients and a ward room, baths, modern kitchen, and the second floor is given over to the nurses." A wind was added later to accommodate more patients. The hospital closed in 1958 when Williamson County Hospital opened, and the building became Graystone Nursing Home. In 2003 the Heritage Foundation persuaded the Williamson County Commission to save the landmark, when plans called for a parking lot on the site.

The Tennessee Female College was organized in 1857 as a place of higher learning for young women. At the time, college did not mean further education after high school; it was what we now know as high school, and girls from Franklin, Middle Tennessee and even some from out of state attended here. The rise of public schooling finally put the school out of business about the turn of the 19th century. After the first building burned in 1886, this three-story brick structure with tower served Franklin until it was demolished in 1916.

The W.O.N. Perkins house burned during the Civil War. In 1867, Perkins rebuilt his house on the same foundation using material from the old County Court Clerk's office, located in the north corner of the square. He soon sold the house to William E. Winstead and the home became known as Winstead Place. It was later the home of Mayor Asa Jewell, and the O'More School of Design. The S.A. McNutt house was next door and was replaced in the 1890's by R.E. Haynes. The present late-Victorian brick was home to Franklin lawyer Cabel Berry and became known as the Berry House, until it became the library for O'More. After Belmont University moved O'More College of Design in 2018, the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County purchased the property. Now known as Franklin Grove Estate & Gardens will feature two historic mansions, event space, and more.

Court was first held in a tavern, then in a little log building in the middle of the square. By 1809, a more permanent building arose in the same location that served until 1858 when the courthouse on the southeast corner of the square was built. Classic in appearance with a triangular pediment and four cast-iron columns, the courthouse served until 2004, when the Williamson County Judicial Center opened for business.

On this corner, there was once a public watering trough and livery stable where the current city hall stands. When visitors rode into town, they tied up their horses and let them drink at the trough. A grocery store, blacksmith shop, and the newspaper all conducted business here. The current building was built as a shopping mall in the 1970s before being repurposed for city offices in the 1980s.