Grevemberg House Museum

The Grevemberg House is a Greek Revival townhouse of about 1851 in Franklin's City Park, on Sterling Road. Henry C. Wilson built it, Frances Wykoff Grevemberg bought it in 1857, and her family owned it until 1880. Donelson Caffery Jr. bought it in 1900. From 1949 to 1966 it served as the city's recreation center.

When the city council considered demolishing it for a baseball field, the St. Mary Chapter of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, organized in the early 1960s, went before the council, and the society says the house was saved by one vote. The society leased and restored it with the architect Samuel Wilson Jr. in 1969 and has run it as the official St. Mary Parish museum for more than 50 years. Franklin was founded in 1808 on Bayou Teche, and its historic district, on the National Register since 1982, holds 334 contributing buildings along eight blocks of Main Street and five of Adams Street.

The collection includes a mahogany dining table, a C. Lee bed, documented wallpapers, antique toys and Civil War artifacts. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with no appointment needed. Adults pay $12, seniors and students 13 to 18 pay $10, and children 12 and under are free. The society also shows Shadowlawn, an 1833 house at the west end of Main Street, by appointment.