Franklin was first settled by Europeans in 1660 and was officially incorporated in 1778. The Town is also home to the birth place of America's father of public education, Horace Mann. Franklin is home to what may be the nation's oldest continuously operational one-room school house (Croydon, NH'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 and the building was constructed in 1833 and was operational until 2008. St. Mary's Catholic church, located in central Franklin, is the largest Catholic parish in the Boston Archdiocese with some 15,000 members.
Franklin boasts many sports teams. For public recreation, Franklin offers baseball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey, track and field, football, flag football, basketball, metro basketball, softball, Babe Ruth baseball, and wrestling. There are many trails for recreational hiking and some trails in the Franklin State Forest are approved for non-motorized mountain biking.
The town also contains remnants of its Industrial Revolution background. Until recently, abandoned mills existed along the railroad tracks. One old mill building was turned into residential condos and a nearby building consists of a variety of multiple-use commercial businesses, including the Franklin Mill Store.The Brookdale Mill on the other side of Franklin was converted into Incontro, an upscale restaurant.A fourth mill on Hayward street was converted to upscale shopping.
