Local Art Appreciation

Despite its location amongst various historic and architecturally notable buildings, the Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church is hardly just another figurative face in a crowd. Occupying half a block on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Main Street in Downtown Franklin, the red brick church is the first building that drivers and pedestrians alike see upon entering the historic town from Hillsboro Road. Providing a picturesque backdrop for Starbucks addicts and a place for Sweet Cece’s junkies to enjoy their frozen yogurt, the church is viewed both as a place of worship and as an important part of the small town’s culture.

The Presbyterian Church was initially located by the City Cemetery, but moved to its current location in 1842. The original structure was burned in a fire in 1905, warranting its reconstruction three years later. The church is boarded by buildings on two sides while the others face streets. As a result, the structure lacks a grand main entrance. The side of the church facing Main Street, however, is the most notable view of the structure due to the beautiful stained glass windows and brickwork decoration it boasts.

This façade of the church can be visually divided into three separate parts—namely, a leftward section, a central section, and a rightward section. Stone stairways with wrought iron railings lead to white wooden double doors paneled with stain glass windows that are nestled within arcuated openings in the left and right portions of the structure. In the central section between the doors that flank the structure, a row of three oblong arched stained glass windows immediately capture the viewer’s attention. The stained glass windows do not show narrative Biblical scenes, but rather are filled with bright blues, greens, browns, and purples that form ornamental details. High relief terracotta details are found where the sides of the arches begin to curve to form the rounded top. Above these windows resides a horizontal row of seven small relief brick archways beneath a large triangular relief filled with brickwork detail.

The roofline of the structure from this point of view is not a consistent horizontal line. Rather, the leftward section has the lowest roofline, rising not much higher than the top of the archway, while the central structure has a taller A-line roof, and a rectangular tower rises above the rightward side. The tower boasts a rectangular central stain glass window flanked by two oblong brick archways. Directly above the window, a third, wider brick arch resides. A small, white, metal, cruciform steeple ascends from the top of the tower. Around the tower’s upper edge, square and rectangular sections of brick have been cut out to form notches reminiscent of those found on a stereotypical medieval castle.

Aside from its principle purpose as a place of worship, Historic Franklin’s Presbyterian Church has served as a hospital after the Battle of Franklin, temporarily housed the Franklin Female Institute, been appreciated as a form of local art, and provided people with a shady and picturesque place to watch the hustle and bustle of Main Street go by.