The Simpson County Courthouse anchors Franklin's downtown square. The current building, on US 31W and Kentucky Route 73, replaces earlier structures and is the focal point of the surrounding Franklin Downtown Commercial District — a National Register-listed block of late-19th-century brick storefronts that survive remarkably intact.
Walk the square in an afternoon. There is no grand monument to look at, but the texture of small-town Kentucky — the courthouse lawn, the antique shops, the diner on the corner — is the point. Markets and community events spill out onto the square through the warmer months.