Property Maintenance
Franklin MA

History

Franklin was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and officially incorporated during the American Revolution. The town was formed from the western part of the town of Wrentham, and it was officially incorporated on March 2, 1778; its designated name at incorporation was to be Exeter. However, the town’s citizens opted to call it Franklin, in honor of the statesman Benjamin Franklin, the first municipality in the U.S. to be so named.

It was hoped that Benjamin Franklin would donate a bell for a church steeple in the town, but he donated 116 books instead, beginning a debate over who should be allowed access to these books. On November 20, 1790, it was decided that the volumes would be lent to the residents of Franklin for free via its library, which has been in operation since then as the Franklin Public Library. The Ray Memorial Library building was dedicated in 1904. In 1990, on the library’s bicentennial, its staff published a booklet, “A History of America’s First Public Library at Franklin Massachusetts, 1790 ~ 1990” to commemorate America’s first public library and book collection.

The town is also home to the birthplace of America’s father of public education, Horace Mann. The town is also home to what may have been the nation’s oldest continuously operational one-room school house (Croydon, New Hampshire‘s school dates to 1780, but there is debate as to whether it is truly “one room”). The Red Brick School was started in 1792, its building constructed in 1833, and was operational until 2008. St. Mary’s Catholic Church, located in central Franklin and built by Matthew Sullivan, is the largest Catholic parish in the Boston Archdiocese with some 15,000 members.

Geography

Franklin is located at 42°5′N 71°24′W / 42.083°N 71.400°W / 42.083; -71.400 (42.0891, -71.4069). According to the U.S. Census Bureau the town has a total area of 27.0 square miles (70 km²), of which 26.7 square miles (69 km²) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.78 km²) (1 percent) is water.

Most of Franklin lies within the Charles River watershed. Principal streams include Mine, Shepard’s, Miller, Uncas, Dix and Miscoe Brooks. Much of the marshland along Mine Brook has been permanently protected by the Natural Valley Storage Project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The extreme southwest corner of Franklin is part of the Blackstone River watershed. The town has an impounded series of lakes known as the Franklin Reservoir, which is not used as a public drinking water supply. The lakes are now protected open space donated to the town by the late Ernest DelCarte.^{[citation needed]} Significant public forests and parks include the Franklin State and the Franklin Town Forests.

Transportation

Franklin has easy access to major cities like Boston and Providence with its two exits along I-495 at Route 140 and King St. Commuter rail service from Boston’s South Station is provided by the MBTA with the Forge Park/495 and Dean College stops on its Franklin Line.

Franklin, and the surrounding towns also have a bus system, that is part of the Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA) bus authority. Its route includes stops to the Municipal Building, Senior Center, Franklin Public Library, and the Franklin Village Shopping center.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franklin, Massachusetts.

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Franklin (Massachusetts).

• Town of Franklin official website