Haunted Franklin Tour

       Downtown Franklin is Just A' Crawlin' with Ghosts! 

 Lives cut short.... Sudden, violent death.... Unfinished business. All reasons spirits remain behind. But sometimes it's an entirely different reason: folks get so attached to their homes that they just can't bear to leave...even after they die. 

Franklin seems to be full of both kinds. We've got departed socialites, spies, businessmen, Confederate soldiers, and at least one dog, all roaming downtown, and we spend an interesting hour and a half with them on this tour. One is helpful, several appear lonely, and one seems to be afraid of the dark. 

Cost: $18 adults; $10 teens, $5 children. This tour covers about six city blocks.  Wear comfortable walking shoes and dress for the weather.  Most of this tour is wheelchair accessible.  

The Haunted Franklin tour is offered almost every evening at 8:00 p.m., weather permitting.   Please call 615-400-3808 to make your reservation. 

Payment is by cash, check or credit card, either online or at the time of the tour.    

The Haunted Franklin tour meets at 305 Public Square, which is in front of the old courthouse on the public square at Main Street and 3rd Avenue, next to Mellow Mushroom. Please plan to arrive ten minutes before the start of your tour time.  

Here's a Tripadvisor.com review: "My girlfriends and I wanted to do something different on a Saturday night. We took the Franklin on Foot Ghost Tour. Anna was wonderful! She knows so much about the area and grew up in Franklin. This tour is full of historical facts that make the information come to life. I wish all history was this interesting with the personal stories. I plan on taking all my future visitors (family and friends) on this tour when they come to visit us. I am ready to take more tours of Franklin on Foot."

More Ghosts...    

Now for the rest of the story...

I wrote Ghosts of Franklin, Tennessee's Most Haunted Town in 2008 after being asked to do so for years. Folks who came on the ghost tour wanted more. I diligently researched the history behind the stories as well as the stories themselves. Nearly all of my sources allowed their real names to be used--the few that didn't seemed worried about repercussions from friends and family. None of the witnesses were professional ghost hunters. Some disbelieved in ghosts. One man said, "I don't actually believe in ghosts...but I saw one. I hope never to see another one." 

Stories you'll hear on your tour are included, but there are many others. Stories are from all over Franklin, including Carnton Plantation, Clouston Hall, Lotz House, O'More College and many more haunted locales around Franklin. Chapters include The Original Steel Magnolia, A Great Place to Live, What's With Third Avenue, Anyway? A Scandal Involving a President and  Woman, It Was Not a Bed of Roses, The Party House (new in 2011), A Spirited Main Street, No Place on Earth They'd Rather Be, Bloody Franklin, She Watches Still, and The Final Resting Place. The book includes over 65 historic and current photos, including the ghost of the little girl  in the window at Carnton Plantation that can be seen on the cover.

Regularly priced at $19.95, you can get a signed copy of your book at the time of your tour for a special price. Just ask your tour guide!

Here's an internet review:

"This book, written by one of the founders of the Franklin on Foot historical walking tours in Franklin, TN, made me very much want to visit Historic Carnton Plantation in Franklin, where some pretty extensive (and touching) Civil War hauntings have been witnessed by many employees and visitors and sensitively documented in this book. There are some wonderful first-hand accounts of hauntings in many other Franklin, TN, locations included here as well, but the author worked at Carnton so the stories she recounts of it especially resonate.

What's impressive about this book is that the author actually interviewed and directly quotes the witnesses who experienced the hauntings, and also provides plenty of background information about the houses, shops, etc., in which the hauntings occurred. Her approach really draws the reader into these accounts, and makes for a very satisfying book.

If you love (as I do) to read true ghost stories but have been disappointed by too many books that purport to be collections of same but turn out to only repeat vague, third-hand legends collected from older books with no actual personal experiences involved, I urge you to pick up this book. It's truly one of the best I've read in this genre."  K. Brand

Ghosts of Franklin is trade paperback, 181 pages. Signed copies are also available for purchase at Landmark Booksellers, Puckett's Restaurant, Clouston Hall/Gallery 202, Lotz House, Winchester Antique Mall and Carnton Plantation.