If you have spent the last few years pulling into the gravel lot behind The Factory at Franklin on a Saturday morning, muscle memory probably still points you there. You know the walk from the car, the donut truck with the long line, the guy who grinds his own flour for bread. That market is real. It is also, as of this year, at a different site six blocks away.
What replaced it under the water tower plaza is not the same market wearing a new coat of paint. It is a different organization, with a different name that sounds almost identical, run by a different person, on the exact same day of the week. Two Saturday farmers markets now exist in Franklin, both calling themselves some version of "Farmers Market," and if you have not been paying close attention since January, there is a decent chance you have been going to whichever one happened to still be there when you showed up.
Twenty-four years at one address, then a move
As the Williamson Herald reported, the nonprofit Franklin Farmers Market held its last Saturday behind The Factory in late December 2025, closing out a run that started in 2002 and grew from eight vendors to more than 100. Executive director Amy Tavalin has been open about the reason for the move: the market had simply outgrown the space. On January 3, 2026, it reopened at Franklin First United Methodist Church, 120 Aldersgate Way, on the corner of Franklin Road and Mack Hatcher Parkway.
The new site trades a tight commercial lot for three parking areas, including handicap parking near the sanctuary entrance, and room to eventually build a permanent pavilion. That pavilion does not exist yet. The market is running a capital campaign to fund it, with a public fundraising goal in the millions, and until it is built, market days happen in the open on the church campus rather than under cover.
The relationship between the market and its new host goes beyond real estate. Franklin First's Giving Garden collects roughly 40,000 pounds of leftover produce from the market each year between April and October, distributing it free to nearby neighborhoods. That partnership existed before the move and was part of why the church made sense as a landing spot, not just a parking lot with room to spare.
Vendors describe the shift in practical terms. Ray Tyler of Rose Creek Farms has pointed to a roughly 25 percent increase in customers since the relocation, tied directly to the added parking. Stacy Geny of Paradise Produce has said her sales are up around 30 percent at the new site, a number she attributes to steadier, more dependable turnout now that shoppers are not circling a full lot looking for a space.
What moved into the space it left behind
As the Williamson Herald reported, The Factory at Franklin did not let the Saturday morning tradition at its water tower plaza disappear. Beginning the same day the original market opened its new doors, January 3, 2026, The Factory launched the Factory Farmers Market at 230 Franklin Road, right where the old market used to set up.
This one is curated by Diane Kolopanas, described in the market's own announcement as a local resident and the market's owner. It is a smaller, more tightly selected lineup of farmers, food producers, and specialty vendors than the market that used to occupy the same ground, and it runs on the same Saturday schedule, generally cited as 8 a.m. to noon, though The Factory's own market page lists slightly different hours of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you are timing a visit around either end of the morning, it is worth checking the specific market's own page the week you go, since even the market itself has published two different windows.
The Factory has framed the new market as a continuation of "the tradition" rather than a replacement, and there is a case for that framing. Shoppers who show up for the parking, the walk past the old Factory storefronts, and the general Saturday morning rhythm will find something familiar. But it is a new legal entity with new leadership, not the same nonprofit that spent 24 years building relationships with the farmers who now sell six blocks away.
Here is the comparison as it stands this fall:
| Franklin Farmers Market | Factory Farmers Market | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 120 Aldersgate Way, Franklin First United Methodist Church campus | 230 Franklin Road, Water Tower Plaza at The Factory |
| Day and hours | Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon, year-round | Saturdays, generally 8 a.m. to noon, though some listings show 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Leadership | Nonprofit, executive director Amy Tavalin | Curated by local resident and market owner Diane Kolopanas |
| History at this address | New location since January 3, 2026, after 24 years at The Factory | New market since January 3, 2026, occupying the space the previous market vacated |
| Scale | Historically 100-plus vendors | A smaller, curated vendor list |
| Community tie-in | Giving Garden produce donation program with the host church | Set inside The Factory's shopping and dining complex |
The Factory's renovation plans
Part of the context here is that The Factory itself is mid-renovation. The complex has a master plan in motion that includes a boutique hotel and a parking garage adding more than 200 new spaces to the property. A Saturday morning market has been part of the identity of that space for over two decades.
The renovation plans do not make one market better than the other. But the split does mean that "the farmers market at the Factory" and "the Franklin Farmers Market" are no longer reliably the same sentence, and if you are describing plans to a friend, the address is doing more work than the name right now.
The rest of the week has its own rhythm
Saturday mornings get the attention, but Franklin's local food calendar runs on more than one day. The Westhaven Farmers Market sets up every Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m., May through October, in Foundation Park near Paddle Dog, a smaller midweek stop with produce, eggs, and baked goods for anyone who does not want to wait until the weekend. It also runs a holiday pop-up in December for gift-focused vendors once the regular season winds down.
If you are willing to drive a little further out toward Leiper's Fork, Farm Market Fridays at the historic Davis General Store adds a third option entirely, Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at a store that has served the Boston and Leiper's Fork area since around 1928. It is a different kind of stop, gas pump on one side and a deli sandwich counter on the other, but it fills in the Friday gap between the Wednesday and Saturday markets closer to town.
Strung together, the week now looks like this: Wednesday evening in Foundation Park, Friday midday near Leiper's Fork, and two separate Saturday morning markets a few blocks apart in Franklin proper, each with its own name, its own leadership, and its own version of "the tradition."
Knowing which one you are walking into
None of this requires picking a side. Both markets are running, both are legitimate, and both are staffed by real farmers trying to sell real food on a Saturday morning. The only mistake worth avoiding is assuming the name on a friend's recommendation, an old bookmark, or a two-year-old blog post still points to the same physical place it did before January. Check the address, not just the name, and you will end up exactly where you meant to go.
This is the kind of week-to-week texture that tells you what living in Franklin actually feels like day to day, not just what the town looks like from a listing photo. If you are watching this market from the outside because you are thinking about a move to Franklin or the surrounding Williamson County countryside, Leiper's Fork Living can walk you through what a Saturday routine like this looks like from the other side of a closing.
