County Past
Home › Kentucky › Franklin County

Franklin County, Kentucky

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
61historic places
—earliest paper
1795formed
51,541pop. 2020
9cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 61 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1971; 3 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Frankfort, Harvieland, Bridgeport.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Kentucky is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Franklin titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

36 of 61 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

61 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Allen, Col. R. T. P., HouseFrankfortBuilding1979
Archeological Site 15 FR 368FrankfortSite1985
Archeological Site 15 FR 368 (Boundary Increase)FrankfortSite1996
Archeological Site 15 Fr 26HarvielandSite1978
Archeological Site 15 Fr 34FrankfortSite1978
Archeological Site 15 Fr 52HarvielandSite1978
ArrowheadFrankfortDistrict1989
BeechesFrankfortBuilding1979
Berry, George F., HouseFrankfortBuilding2002
Blanton-Crutcher FarmFrankfortBuilding1975
Bridgeport SchoolBridgeportBuilding2014
Brown-Henry HouseFrankfortBuilding2014
Capital Plaza HotelFrankfortBuilding2024
Central Frankfort Historic DistrictFrankfortDistrict2009
Chapel on the ForksFrankfortBuilding2020
Colored Soldiers Monument in FrankfortFrankfortObject1997
Confederate Monument in FrankfortFrankfortObject1997
Corner in Celebrities Historic DistrictFrankfortDistrict1971
Dills SiteFrankfortSite1978
Frankfort Barracks DistrictFrankfortDistrict1975
Frankfort Cemetery and ChapelFrankfortStructure1974
Frankfort Commercial Historic DistrictFrankfortDistrict1979
Frankfort GreenhousesFrankfortBuilding1997
Frankfort Storage Building-ArmoryFrankfortBuilding2002
George T. Stagg Distillery NHLFrankfortBuilding2001
Giltner-Holt HouseFrankfortBuilding1978
Glen WillisFrankfortBuilding1972
Gooch HouseFrankfortBuilding1980
Green Hill CemeteryFrankfortSite2024
Green Hill Missionary Baptist ChurchFrankfortBuilding2024
Haggin FarmMidwayBuilding1983
Hearn, Andrew, Log House and FarmJettBuilding1976
Hume, E. E., HallFrankfortBuilding1983
Hutcherson SitePolsgroveSite1978
Jackson Hall, Kentucky State UniversityFrankfortBuilding1973
Julian Farm (Additional Documentation)BridgeportDistrict1988
Kentucky Governor's MansionFrankfortBuilding1972
Kentucky State ArsenalFrankfortBuilding1973
Kentucky State CapitolFrankfortBuilding1973
Knight-Taylor-Hockensmith HouseFrankfortBuilding2013
Liberty Hall NHLFrankfortBuilding1971
Morehead, Gov. Charles S., HouseFrankfortBuilding1974
Old Governor's MansionFrankfortBuilding1971
Old Statehouse NHLFrankfortBuilding1971
Old Statehouse Historic DistrictFrankfortDistrict1980
Old Stone TavernFrankfortBuilding1983
Old U.S. Courthouse and Post OfficeFrankfortBuilding1974
Patterson, Charles, HouseFrankfortBuilding1983
Penn-Marshall Stone HouseHarvielandBuilding1975
Point BreezeFrankfortBuilding2014
Risk Brothers SiteFrankfortSite1978
ScotlandFrankfortBuilding1976
South Frankfort Neighborhood Historic DistrictFrankfortDistrict1982
South Frankfort Neighborhood Historic District (Boundary Increase)FrankfortDistrict2013
Stewart Home SchoolFrankfortDistrict1976
Switzer Covered BridgeSwitzerStructure1974
Todd, Robert, Summer HomeFrankfortBuilding1983
Trumbo, Andrew, Log HouseFrankfortBuilding1977
Valley Farm RuinsFrankfortSite1975
WeehawkenJettBuilding2007
Zeigler, Rev. Jesse R., HouseFrankfortBuilding1976

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Franklin was formed in 1795 (1795-05-10) from Mercer, Shelby, Woodford.

FRANKLIN created from MERCER, SHELBY, and WOODFORD.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Franklin County population from 1800 to 2020 (Census historical series).

52k28k5,07818001840188019101920196020002020
1800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,07811,0249,42012,69418,69920,85219,35723,30825,93329,42141,83047,68751,541

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

9 cemeteries and 14 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 9 of 9 listed
NameLatLon
Bailey Cemetery38.33868-84.96118
Choateville Church Cemetery38.20393-84.92224
Frankfort Cemetery38.19783-84.86717
Green Hill Cemetery38.20479-84.83851
Hutcherson Cemetery38.30642-84.94103
Moore Cemetery38.33224-84.89278
Peaks Mill Church Cemetery38.30192-84.81132
Sudduth Cemetery38.24599-84.97346
Waits Cemetery38.3209-84.89661
Historical populated places — 14 of 14
NameLatLon
Fox Gap38.15453-84.88156
Gibbs Road38.13188-85.02226
Glore38.2179-84.90918
Gregory38.334-84.8198
Harp38.3014-84.9188
Hodge38.25596-84.80806
Honeysuckle38.24786-84.92909
Knights38.26939-84.81364
Lucas Lane38.25356-84.78858
Mount Zion38.23068-84.99066
Roberts38.19295-84.99899
Roberts38.16772-85.00173
Scanland Springs Resort38.12588-84.90726
Shadrick Ferry38.26327-84.88365

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Franklin County, Kentucky

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.