1. Franklin Marriott Cool Springs
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (615) 261-6100, (888) 403-6772
Address: 700 Cool Springs Blvd.
Description: This 11-story, 300-room hotel is located right across I-65 from Cool Springs’s shops and restaurants and offers fast and easy access to Nashville, just a few miles north. The hotel features an indoor pool, sundeck, exercise room, and more than 29,000 square feet of meeting space. There is an on-site restaurant as well as an equestrian-themed lounge and a coffee shop. Room amenities include wireless high-speed Internet access, hair dryer, coffeemaker, iron and ironing board, a free movie channel, and a free newspaper each weekday. Half of the hotel’s rooms are designed specifically for business travelers and include a work desk, executive chair, dataport phones, and voice mail. There are 2 concierge floors, and 3 suites are available. Business travelers can take advantage of the full business center, which offers self-service computers, faxing, copying, printing, and other services. There is also an on-site gift shop/newsstand.
2. The Vinny
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (615) 790-8600
Address: 400 Franklin Rd.
Description: Since its inception in 1993, the Vinny, country star Vince Gill’s annual pro-celebrity golf tournament, has raised more than $3 million for Tennessee Junior golf and youth programs. The 2-day event includes PGA Tour players plus sports and entertainment celebrities. The Pro–Celebrity Am takes place on Mon, while amateurs play with the celebrities on Tues. Pros who have participated in the event include John Daly, Fuzzy Zoeller, and Lanny Wadkins. In addition to Vince Gill and his wife, Amy Grant, celebrity participants have included Alice Cooper, NFL quarterback Brett Favre, Charley Pride, and Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn. The event is not open to the public, although many junior golfers are able to participate as volunteers, and the state’s top junior golfers have a chance to play in the tournament.
3. Forrest Crossing Golf Club
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Golf
Telephone: (615) 794-9400
Address: 750 Riverview Dr.
Description: During the Civil War, Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men crossed the picturesque Harpeth River at a spot between where holes number 3 and number 4 are today. The name of this rolling course commemorates the event. Water comes into play on 15 of the 18 holes on this 6,968-yard, par 72 course. Forrest Crossing, which offers corporate events and tournament packages, also has a putting facility, driving range, and full-service snack bar. Greens fees are $39 weekdays and $49 Fri, Sat, and Sun. Walking is allowed after 2 p.m.
4. Williamson Medical Center
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Health Care
Telephone: (615) 435-5000
Address: 2021 Carothers Rd.
Description: Williamson Medical Center is a not-for-profit community hospital dedicated to “making health care services cost effective, convenient, and accessible to area residents and employers.” The 185-bed facility offers comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services, 24-hour emergency care, and preventive health screenings and wellness activities. The medical center is staffed with nearly 350 physicians representing 39 medical specialties from oncology to sports medicine, allergies to reproductive health. The center is known for its orthopedic surgery. Recent additions to Williamson Medical Center are a neonatal intensive care unit, a Breast Health Center, the Heartburn Treatment Center of Middle Tennessee, and the Surgical Weight Loss Center. Williamson Medical Center partners with the community to provide outreach programs to businesses, schools, government, and citizens of Williamson County. Among these activities are community and corporate health fairs, classes in CPR, seminars, and health screenings. In addition, the center provides a full-time physician for Williamson County Health Department patients.
5. Vanderbilt Walk-In Clinic
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Health Care
Telephone: (615) 791-7373
Address: 919 Murfreesboro Rd.
Description: The Vanderbilt Walk-In Clinic is open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Mon through Fri, until 8 p.m. Sat and Sun. Recently added to this facility is the Vanderbilt Orthopedic Clinic, which provides orthopedic care in hand, spine, shoulder, and sports medicine, as well as physical therapy and occupational therapy.
6. Willowbrook Hospice
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Health Care
Telephone: (615) 791-8499, (800) 790-8499
Address: 1164 Columbia Ave.
Description: Willowbrook works with patients who have been diagnosed as having 6 months or less to live if their disease runs its normal course. The hospice’s main focus is on comfort and pain management, working to help patients spend their final days at home rather than in an institution, and teaching family members how to care for their dying loved one. The patient’s personal physician works with Willowbrook’s hospice team to develop an individual plan of care.
7. Gallivant—Your Travel Resource For The South
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Media
Telephone: (615) 790-0487
Address: 5550 Boy Scout Rd.
Description: Launched in 2003 by Summerlin Press, this quarterly, 4-color, glossy magazine covers outdoor recreation, arts, history, romantic retreats, family fun, dining, weekend and day trips, and attractions in six Southeastern states. The 32-page publication is mailed free to 30,000 homes in the Franklin, Brentwood, and Green Hills areas. An annual subscription is $8.
8. La Campana
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Media
Telephone: (615) 791-1274
Address: 2210 Oakleaf Dr.
Description: La Campana del Sur (Spanish for “the Southern Bell”) is a free Spanish-language newspaper that is published weekly. It covers local, national, and world news, with an emphasis on news that affects Hispanics. Sections include business, health, family and fashion, sports, and entertainment. Some 7,500 to 10,000 copies are distributed to businesses, churches, restaurants, universities, medical centers, and other locations in Middle Tennessee.
9. Senior Pathways
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Retirement
Telephone: (615) 742-0011
Address: 113 Seaboard Lane, Suite B200
Description: Senior Pathways provides free care management and referral services for seniors and their families in Middle Tennessee. It’s a sort of one-stop service for a variety of senior care needs. The company specializes in helping seniors find appropriate housing but also provides other helpful services. The staff of social workers and geriatric care specialists provides immediate in-home or in-hospital consultations. Those looking for a new home can get advice on independent living, assisted living, and nursing homes in the area, matched to their particular health care, budget, location, and amenity needs. Senior Pathways also can help seniors stay in their homes by matching them with qualified sitters/companions, housekeepers, transportation services, and other resources. The organization also provides information and advice on Medicare, Medicaid, long-term care insurance, legal services, estate and financial planning, real estate sales, and moving services. The company earns its fees from nursing homes, home health agencies, and other service providers.
10. Antiques Of Franklin
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (615) 591-4612
Address: 230 Franklin Rd.
Description: The 15,000-square-foot Antiques of Franklin is the largest retail store at the Factory at Franklin shopping mall. This store carries practically everything—from roadside castoffs to vintage $20,000 crystal chandeliers. Furniture styles range from French to shabby chic. There is a good collection of antique silver here, as well as old sports memorabilia, rugs, glassware, vintage jewelry, candles, and gift items.
11. Grassland Aquatics
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (615) 799-0708
Address: 2164 Hillsboro Rd.
Description: If you’re one of the many Nashvillians with garden ponds—or if you’re planning to add one to your yard—you’ll want to pay a visit to this huge aquatic nursery and garden supply center. They sell all sorts of floating and underwater plants, as well as materials for building and maintaining ponds, water treatment supplies, and more. In addition to plants, they have a variety of decorative fish, including imported Japanese koi and fancy goldfish, which they will ship anywhere in the United States. The store conducts classes on a variety of pond-related topics.
12. Bluewater Scuba
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (615) 771-0002
Address: 320 Mallory Station Rd.
Description: Bluewater Scuba offers complete instruction in scuba diving, including S.S.I. (Scuba Schools International) courses. You can learn it all at their indoor pool and then take a diving trip to Florida or a number of more exotic locations with your classmates. The shop is also a full-service travel agency that specializes in trips to the Red Sea (Egypt), Costa Rica, and Thailand. They make one or two trips per month to these and other locations around the world, plus one trip to Florida each month. Bluewater Scuba also sells the top lines of scuba equipment.
13. The Boiler Room Theatre
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (615) 794-7744
Address: 230 Franklin Rd.
Description: Williamson County’s first resident professional theater company is located in a converted boiler room of the Depression-era Allen Manufacturing Co. factory. Now a dining and retail complex, the Boiler Room Theatre adds a nice mix of live entertainment to this piece of suburban renewal. Under the guidance of president and artistic director Jamey Green, the Boiler Room presents a season of 4 theatrical and musical productions, plus special events. It’s a varied slate. Past productions have included A Dickens Christmas Carol, the Nashville original Macbeth: The Musical, Six Degrees of Separation, and Man of La Mancha. The BRT Harlequins children’s theater program has two 6-week workshops each year. Held on Sat in the spring and fall, the workshops culminate in a performance. There’s also a kids’ summer camp focusing on all aspects of the theatrical arts, with programs for children and teens. Shows are staged in the 120-seat theater. Ticket prices range from $19 for children under 12 to $25 for adults; matinees are a few dollars cheaper.
14. Carnton Plantation
City: Franklin, TN
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (615) 794-0903
Address: 1345 Carnton Lane
Description: This 1826 antebellum plantation was built by Randal McGavock, who was Nashville’s mayor in 1824 and 1825. The late-neoclassical plantation house is considered architecturally and historically one of the most important buildings in the area. In its early years the mansion was a social and political center. Among the prominent visitors attending the many social events there were Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, and James K. Polk.The home was used as a Confederate hospital after the bloody Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. The Confederates lost at least 12 generals during the battle. The bodies of four of the generals were laid out on the mansion’s back porch. At that time Carnton was the home of McGavock’s son, Col. John McGavock, and his wife, Carrie Winder McGavock. In 1866 the McGavock family donated 2 acres adjacent to their family cemetery for the burial of some 1,500 Southern solders. The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is the country’s largest private Confederate cemetery. Carnton Plantation is open daily.