Franklin is the county seat of Williamson County and, at about 90,000 people, the largest city south of Nashville. It was founded in 1799 and the center of it still looks the part: Main Street’s brick storefronts, the Franklin Theatre’s marquee, the Carter House and Carnton with their Civil War history, and the historic districts of Victorian and early-1900s homes on the streets around the square. Within a mile of the square, Franklin is one of the most walkable places in Middle Tennessee.
Around that core is a much larger and newer city. To the east, along I-65, the Cool Springs corridor has the mall, the offices — Nissan’s North American headquarters and Mars Petcare among them — and the apartments and townhomes that Brentwood does not have. To the west, Westhaven is the region’s best-known planned community, with its own town center, pools and a golf course. In between and beyond are the subdivisions of the 1990s through the 2020s, and at the edges, toward Leiper’s Fork and the Natchez Trace Parkway, the horse-farm countryside that gives the county its look. Three zip codes cover it: 37064 (downtown and the west side), 37067 (Cool Springs and the east) and 37069 (the north side, toward Brentwood).
The cost of Franklin is the commute. Downtown Nashville is 20 miles by I-65 or Franklin Road, 35 to 55 minutes at peak, and there is no train. For a job in Cool Springs, Brentwood or the Williamson County hospitals it is the opposite — the shortest commute in the region — and for remote workers it is a choice about setting, not distance. Property tax is lower than the city’s but not Brentwood’s: inside the Franklin Special School District the combined 2025 rate is $2.0633 per $100 of assessed value; outside it, $1.566. On a $650,000 home that is roughly $3,353 or $2,545 a year, against about $4,573 in most of Nashville.