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Mrs. Della Hayden founded the Franklin Normal and Industrial School, a school for blacks, in 1904.
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In 1900 Miss Fannie Webb opened the Euphradian Institute, a private co-eductational school known for its high standards.
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The ??????? 1900. A wartime blockade runner named the ????, this boat was rebuilt in 1874 as the ????? and was later renamed the ???????. As the ?????, it had 28 ????? and boasted a popular dining room and bar.
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Albemarle Steam Navigation Company schedule, 1909. The ASN, begun as the Albemarle Steam Packet Company in 1860, helped to bring a quick recovery to Franklin after the War.
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Franklin Female Seminary, established in 1894, was among the first schools in the county to provide high school curriculum.
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Main Street, facing north from the railroad, ca. 1898.
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The Seaboard Line passenger station, ca. 1900. The depot, rebuilt after the 1881 fire, stood at the commercial center of Franklin.
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Seaboard Line locomotive in Portsmouth, ca. 1914. The railroad carried passengers and freight out of Franklin daily and was a major factor in the town's recovery.
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The ????? Lee Store, Main Street, ca. 1880. This frame structure is typical of commercial buildings in Franklin before the 1881 fire. Most of these stores had grocery counters on one side and counters for dry and fancy goods on the other.
 
Franklin's location at the junction of a railroad and important water route offered opportunities that attracted new people, so the town rapidly recovered from the War. In 1866 the Albemarle Steam Navigation Company was reorganized and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was rebuilt. Franklin's steamboat lines built new wharves and the town's trade in lumber and peanuts, the region's principal products, grew steadily. Franklin elected its first municipal government in 1869 and incorporated in 1876. In 1879, impressed with the quanitity of goods carried on the Blackwater - Chowan route, the government cleared navigational obstructions between Franklin and Edenton. Though a fire destroyed almost everything from the railroad to First Avenue in 1881, the business district was soon rebuilt in brick and stone. In the 1890s Franklin erected naphtha street lights downtown, installed a telephone system, built two new schools, and bought a pumper fire fighting machine.
"No place on earth could have undergone more changes... than Franklin. Our surprise was unbounded as we looked in vain for old and familiar residences and business stands, only to find them improved beyond recognition, or entirely removed, and their places supplied by others neat and pretty."
The Norfolk Virginian, August 1874
"A few of the rich had electric lights [in 1906], as the Town had built an electric light plant and was operating a generator in the ?????."
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