McElwain Meguire Bank ca 1881
John Milliken wrote that on this lot around 1865 was the two-story frame home of Billie Roberts, a local blacksmith and wagon repairer. He says it was replaced by a frame building occupied by Leiber as a dry goods and clothing store. He also says the present building was built by W. G. Wade and was initially occupied by Lieber and Gross.
McElwain Meguiar Bank was started in 1881. Exactly when they moved into this building is unknown. The interior was handsomely fitted up after the style of metropolitan banking institutions, the furniture being substantial as well as elegant. In the rear of the business department are found the consultation and directors rooms and private offices, the fire and burglar proof vaults, wherein the latest and most substantial Hall's time-lock safe finds protection as well as all collateral in general, is constructed of stone 24 inches thick.
The bank operated there until Monday, November 17, 1930 when it failed to open. It was Simpson Counties largest and oldest bank having opened in 1881 by Frank Meguiar and James McElwain. In October 1929, the stock market crashed starting the Great Depression. Their correspondent bank, the National Bank of Kentucky had closed earlier. In March 1931, bank president J. H. Covington was killed in a traffic accident as he returned from Frankfort with two other bank officials where they had been meeting with state officials about reopening McElwain Meguiar Bank. Covington was a former mayor and county clerk. On April 7, 1931 the bank reopened. O.B. Jackson was president, E.L. Norwood vice-president, John Lovell, James Pearson, James Shugart, Joe Kemble, Joe Ramsey, Joe Bryan and Ben Humphrey were directors. In January 1932 the State Banking Commission appointed CB Moore as liquidating agent for the bank and it closed its doors for good, a victim of the Great Depression.
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The upstairs of the building was office space for several businesses over the years including John F. Larue Real Estate and Insurance (1908), H. H. Black Real Estate (1912), Harris and Larmon Radio (1946), and Godfrey Harris among others.
In 1934, Dr. J. G. Gray bought the building. The building became a restaurant of Clendenning and Thompson in 1935. The building was operated as The Sweet Shop in 1947 when its manager, Ed Snow, was killed in a plane crash. The business was then bought by Leon Page and continued to be operated as The Sweet Shop. In 1952, Page left The Sweet Shop and it closed in 1959 and the building housed Patsy’s Cloth and Sewing Shop until 1970. William McClave then purchased the building and opened the Village Inn Restaurant and operated it until about 1988. He then sold the building and it has been empty and left to deteriorate since.
Wade's Hall ca 1862
This building was a focal point of the town for a number of years. It was built around 1869 by W. G. Wade. The first floor of the building was divided into two storefronts. In one the Wade Brothers operated a grocery store. The second floor of the building was an open space used as an opera house. Parties, plays, concerts, lectures, moving pictures and other activities were held there. When the courthouse burned in 1882, Simpson County Court met in Wade’s Hall.
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In 1886 there was a drug store on the north side with another business on the south side. In 1897 there was a grocery in the south side of the building. By 1901 the north side had become a bowling alley while the south side was a hardware store. By 1912 the Aspley Theatre, managed by Bruce Aspley was on the second floor with a grocery on the north side of the first floor and a men's clothing store on the south side. By 1915 the upstairs had been divided into two spaces by the downstairs tenants leaving the town without a space for large events until the Goodnight Auditorium opened in 1937. In 1925 the north half of the building was home to Law’s Hardware and Grocery operated by Harlan Law until about 1943. The south side was C. H. Hargis and Company Hardware and then about 1918 became Turner and Biggs Hardware Store operated by Charles Biggs and Ernest Turner.
In 1929 Turner and Biggs location became the site of a new Draper and Darwin store. In 1939 Draper and Darwin moved one building south and this became the first location of Houchens Market.
In 1947 this became the location of Simpson County Hardware managed by Frank Etscorn. In 1955 Simpson County Hardware became Gambles.
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In 1960 the building became a Dollar General Store. When Kuhns closed on the south side of the square, Dollar General move to that location. Around 1978 the building became Franklin Pool Room.
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The second floor exterior of the building had been covered by bright blue metal over the years. In 1999 the metal was removed and a few years later restoration began on the building.
Duke Booker Building ca 1886
While this building doesn't look very old, it has the same footprint as the building that existed there in 1886 and the fact that it has the name of the building at the top is typically an indicator it was built in the late 1800s or early 1900s. It was known as the Duke Booker building. F Duke Booker was born in 1882 so it not so likely that he built the building. Possibly his father, Henry J Booker was the original builder. We do know it was a hardware store in 1886 and remained such until it was noted as a grocery in 1908. Duke Booker did operate a hardware store in the early 1900s until 1908 when he leased the space to Emmitt Williams for the purpose of a racket store. We can not be sure this the same building. It was a harness shop in 1913.
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In 1931 George Turner opened a grocery in this building. Draper and Darwin had opened in 1929 next door in Wade's Hall with Herbert Young as manager. The store was the third of the small chain chain based out of Lebanon, Tennessee. In 1934, Draper and Darwin moved into this building.
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In 1952 Young seperated from Draper and Darwin and started opened Youngs Department store at the corner of Main and East Cedar. Woodrow Smith became manager of Draper and Darwin. In 1981 Draper and Darwin closed their store. That same year it became the location of Franklin Flower Shop. In 1983 it became the location of Hayes Shoes. In 2006 it became Pineapple Lilly.
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Herrington Building 1902
From at least 1886 to 1901 there were two wood frame buildings on this lot. They served a variety of businesses over the years such as a meat market, restaurant, and barber shop.
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In In 1902, Dr. J. H. Herrington built two masonry buildings on the east side of the square. One would house Mitchell and Houston druggist and the other would eventually become known as the Herrington Building. In 1903, Biggs Bros., owned by Charles and Elbridge Biggs advertised that they were open in the new Herrington Building. It was primarily a jewelry store but did carry a line of clothes, shoes, and other goods. Around 1911 R.A. Mayhew and E.B. Hatchett opened a shoe store that also had a line of clothing and furnishings.
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Upstairs were numerous offices and some of the first residents of those offices were Bud Neely DDS, Dr. G.L. Jackson and C.B. Moore, Attorney. Later upstairs were Dr. Guy Johns and Dr. J.G. Gray, Dr. B.W. Neely, Dr. J.W. Hayes, public stenographer John Rhea Maxey, Dr. P.B. Stringer, Dr. I.C. Rich, Ben D. Harris real estate, Audreys Beauty Salon and J.R. LaRue Realty and Insurance. In 1924, Saunders and Dunn Insurance opened an office upstairs.
The building barely escaped disaster in 1924 when a fire at Keystone Hotel, which was described as the greatest disaster in Franklin since the Civil War, destroyed over half the east side of the square. Again in 1931, a fire at the firm of I.H. Ginsberg almost destroyed the building. In both cases most of the contents of the Herrington Building were destroyed but the building remained.
At some point in history, the Franklin Cafe operated in the Herrington Building for many years. The upstairs had remained offices over the years and in the late 1940's a new attorney, Roy Steers opened his practice upstairs and was joined by a new dentist across the hall, Dr. C.M. Martin. In 1962 Saunders and Dunn moved from its office upstairs, which it had occupied for 38 years, into the downstairs of the building. In 1964 Lorin Mullins became manager of the agency.
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In the 1980’s the building became the home of Franklin Sporting Goods and still presently occupies the building.
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Herrington Building #2 1902
Mitchel and Huston
From 1981 to 1987 the was the home of the House of Prayer Church. In 2011 it became the location of Pyramid prints.
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JD Robbins drug store became Mitchell and Huston drug store. In 1903 became huston and Black.
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Keystone Drug was at Mitchell and Hustons old stand 1910
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Ben Franklin Store ca 1886
In 1886 this was a confectionary with a dry goods store on the second floor. There was an oven in the basement. By 1892 it was a hardware store with stoves and tin ware. By 1901 it had become a furniture store. In 1908, harnesses and wagons were sold from this building. In 1925 this became the location of W.C. Grainger Furniture store.
In 1935 this became the location of the Ben Franklin Store. There were about 2400 of these stores nationwide but all were locally owned and this one was owned by Max Wise. In 1937 Wise sold the store to W. L. Bentley of Springfield who owned other similar stores. In 1947 it became known as Bentley's 5 and 10 cent Store. In 1941 Walter Gregg became manager of the store and remained until 1959 when he became manager of the Dixon Tennessee store. In 1966 Mr. Gregg and his wife returned to the Franklin store. It was at this time the store expanded into the basement of the building for a toy department. In 1978 Bentleys closed and this became the location of Biggs Shoe Repair. Today it is the home of Mustard Seed Market.
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The trophy shop kelly banton
Kennedy Jewelry building 1925
In 1886 there was a small wood framed building with a brick veneer on this lot. It was at one time a confectionary and later a grocery. The building extended only about halfway to the alley behind it. In 1897 it had become a masonry building and it is probably safe to assume the 1894 fire that started in John Bottomley's harness shop destroyed the building much as it did the building on its south side. In 1925 the building extended all the way back to the alley and it is possible that it was rebuilt to some degree after the Keystone Hotel fire in 1924.
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In 1953 Harold Kennedy established Kennedy Jewelers in Franklin. In 1969 he moved the business to this location on the east side of the square and it continues in this location today.
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JC McClean Building 1924
In 1886 there was a wood frame building at this location. It is possible this was the home and business of Clement and Nancy Fisher. They were born about 1800 and were originally from Virginia by way of Springfield, Tennessee and arrived in Franklin before 1830. In Clement Fisher's 1884 obituary in the Courier-Journal, he was described as Franklin's first merchant. In 1894 there was a fire that started in the John Bottomley harness shop that destroyed the building. By 1897 there was a one story masonry building here that was occupied by a harness shop on one side and a grocery on the other. The building was not nearly as large as the current building being only one story and extending only halfway back to the alley behind. It is possible that this was James McClean built this building and operated his grocery out of it as it was mentioned later that he had twice lost his business to fire but we have not been able to verify this.
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we do know that James McClean was operating a grocery store at this location until January 29, 1924. On that night, the Keystone Hotel on the south side of his building caught fire and collapsed onto his building destroying it. Mr. McClean wasted no time rebuilding and before the end of 1924, his new building was in place and was the home of Maxwell and Hunt Drug Store. Maxwell and Hunt had been in business since 1917 at another location. Previously it had been Maxwell and Ray and before that Robinson's Drug Store.
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In 1925, Charles Maxwell sold his part of the business to James Shugart and it became Shugart and Hunt. Hubert Hunt eventually left the business and Howarth Shugart eventually took over for his father. T.C. Willis joined the business in 1962 and became sole owner in 1974. In 1992 Willis retired and the building became Gallery on the square as it is today.
Keystone Hotel 1901
At this location was the John H. Smith Drug Store and John Bottomley's saddle and harness shop. In 1901 the Keystone Hotel was built in their place. The Keystone Hotel was said to have been in the Lacey Building in reference to R.H. Lacey.
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While most consider the fire that destroyed the Courthouse in 1882 as being the biggest fire in Franklin, in 1924 the Franklin Favorite said the Keystone Hotel fire was the biggest since before the Civil War. Indeed the fire destroyed half the block on the east side of the square.
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The Keystone Hotel was located on north end of the site that became the Franklin Hotel and later Sullivan's Department Store. It was a three story building with hotel rooms on the second and third floors and shops and the hotel lobby on the first floor. It opened in 1901 and after the closing of the Boisseau Hotel was Franklin's only hotel. Before the Keystone Hotel was there there were two smaller masonry buildings which housed a drug store and a harness shop. The Keystone building was built by RH Lacy and at the time owned by John Pond.
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One of the first floor shops was the Keystone Drug Store in which at 2:45 AM on January 29, 1924 a fire started. The fire quickly spread and engulfed the entire building. The stairway was blocked by fire and the third floor residents had to exit by the fire escape, many still in their night clothes.
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On the north side of the building, where the McClean Building (Gallery on the Square) now stands was the grocery of McClean and Jasper. North of the McClean building was the the E.R. Ray building in which H.G. Guthrie operated a cafe. As the fire intensified, the north wall of the Keystone Hotel collapsed onto the McClean and Ray buildings destroying them.
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The two buildings to the south of the Keystone were sometimes referred to as Goodwin's Block. The were said to be two of the oldest buildings in Franklin and were built by DC Walker and owned by his two daughters at the time of the fire. As firefighters focused on the McClean and Ray buildings, the fire spread to the south of the Keystone to a dry goods store operated by Harry Feinberg and the building on the corner of Main and Cedar Streets was home of Jolly Brothers Confectionary.
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When the fire was finished it had turned half a block on the city square into a vacant lot. JC McClean rebuilt his building the next year and it eventually became a drug store known as Shugart and Willis. ER Ray also quickly rebuilt but the remainder of the block remained empty and the citizens of Franklin were distressed because of the lack of a hotel in their city. Soon a committee was formed and the citizens of Franklin invested in creating the new Franklin Hotel which opened in 1926. It had 37 rooms with shops and the hotel lobby on the first floor. There was a coffee shop, telegraph office, restaurant and beauty parlor among other businesses in the building. It hosted many events, celebrations, bridge clubs and other happenings for many years.
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As in all America, the prosperous years after WWII made way for wide spread use of the automobile and cities developed suburbs. By the 1950's Franklin saw the addition of the 31W motel, Kentucky Motel, Suburban Motel and Homestead Court. Downtown hotels became less popular and in 1962 National Stores consolidated three stores into the first floor of the Franklin Hotel with Glen Malone as manager. While rooms still rented in 1963 for $6 for a single and $7 for a double with an additional charge of $1 if you wanted a private bath, the Franklin Hotel was no more. In 1967 the National Store became Sullivan's Department Store. In 1988 Washington Manufacturing declared bankruptcy and the store remained as Sullivan's under private ownership.