Grand Opening at Franklin Historical Museum, Sat at 10 AM

Saturday at 10 AM, the Franklin Historical Museum will formally open its major exhibit, Franklin in Miniature, 1932.  The exhibit took thousands of hours of research and precision modeling to create three large, models of the center of Franklin, circa 1932, clustered around the railroad tracks that connected the community to nearby towns and faraway cities. The models are an exact representation of the structures that once existed from just west of the present-day Del Carte Conservation land to beyond the present day Mill Store (image above).  One of the landmarks that remains today, is the Franklin-Dean train station, originally built in 1928.

The models include hundreds of structures in a scale where tiny people stand little more than half-an-inch tall and the largest buildings are about the size of a shoe box!  All structures are accurate in detail, in most cases down to individual bricks and window panes.  And be sure to keep an eye out for the pigeons!

Everything is a product of master modeler Scott Mason, a lifelong Franklin resident and former chair of the Town Council. 

For this special Free event (DONATIONS ENCOURAGED), the Museum will be open during its regular hours, 10-1 on Saturdays and 1-4 and Sundays, extended hours (until 5 pm) during A-Wreath-of-Franklin on Saturday, Dec. 13 AND EXTENDED HOURS DURING THE SCHOOL VACATION WEEK [The Museum is working to be open from 1-5 on Dec. 25 to 31 – verify hours at the Museum Website before coming].

Below, down by the station, early on a 1932 morning...

Below, a 1932 view of the current day Mill Store on Union Street and the former location of Fiori  & Fern., below.