Franklin

Franklin began as Carlin's Settlement, founded in 1808 by the French-born pioneer Joseph Carlin and his family. It became the parish seat in 1811 and was incorporated in 1820. Steamboats made it an interior sugar port, and its planters were among the wealthiest agriculturists in the South, wealth made by enslaved labor. After the railroad came it turned into a sawmill town. The historic district now holds more than 420 notable structures, among them Oaklawn Manor, built by the planter and U.S. senator Alexander Porter, who served from 1833 to 1837.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Grevemberg House Museum — 0.8 mi
  Franklin's 1851 Greek Revival townhouse, the official St. Mary Parish museum, saved from demolition by one vote and set in the Franklin Historic District on Bayou Teche.
• Chitimacha Museum — 6.9 mi
  The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana's own museum at Charenton: the tribe's account of its territory, the French wars and enslavement, the land held in trust, and river cane baskets.
• Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum — 15 mi
  A Louisiana State Museum in Patterson on the world's largest cypress sawmill town and the Wedell-Williams racing planes, with a theater and changing exhibits.
• Cypremort Point State Park — 22 mi
  A 185-acre Vermilion Bay park reached by road, with a half-mile man-made beach, a marsh boardwalk, shore fishing and a boat launch, and a Chitimacha tradition of a great cypress here.

More markers nearby

• Jared Young Sanders — steps away
• Charles Austin O'Niell — steps away
• The Gunboat Diana — steps away
• Battle of Irish Bend — steps away