Historic Williamson County: Treasured Sites, released in February 2024, has been awarded the 36^th Annual National Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal for excellence in publishing. The award was announced by the Independent Book Publishers Association, America’s largest publishers’ association, at their annual conference in Denver, Colorado. The Grandin Hood book was selected from more than 1,800 entries. This is the fifth time in recent years that a Grandin Hood book has received the distinctive award.

 

Historic Williamson County:Treasured Sites celebrates the 225^th anniversary of Franklin and Williamson County’s founding. Hall of Fame author Jim Crutchfield, Heritage Foundation Historian Rick Warwick, and Pulitzer Prize photographer Robin Hood collaborated over two years to create the large-format tribute to Williamson County’s rich historic heritage. The commemorative edition is a stunning collection of engaging text, historical photographs and new color photography.

 

The compelling edition presents seventy-five sites, from the county’s first settler’s 1799 log home on Spencer Creek and a still-existent Brentwood fort attacked by Cherokee Indians in 1788, through the Federal and Greek Revival manses of the 1800s, to the late-nineteenth-century Victorian “Grand Dames” sprinkled throughout downtown Franklin. The book illuminates the rich architectural heritage of many of Franklin and Williamson County’s historic homes and sites with colorful text and photo profiles. Tennessee historians have noted the book as “an unprecedented collection of iconic sites chronicling Williamson County’s history.

 

5,000 copies of the book were funded by the Avalyn and Tim Swain Foundation and donated to Franklin’s Downtown Rotary Club for sales, with proceeds directed to the Rotary Club’s community projects.

 

Grandin Hood Publishers recently published the 100^th Anniversary book for the National Parks Conservation Association, and is currently producing a book celebrating the 75^th Anniversary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, both located in Washington D.C.