New life for a former doctor’s office: Main and Madison

Two women are living a longtime dream as they watch customer after customer flow out of their new downtown Franklin restaurant.

Co-owners Amy Richardson and Stephanie Northern had a vision of starting a restaurant one day. They’ve now turned a historic downtown Franklin building into the Main and Madison Market Café at 100 N. Main St.

Richardson, owner of City View Apartments in Franklin and Northern, a former elementary school teacher, spent most of 2015 and 2016 searching for a place to house their restaurant idea.

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When Richardson found out the longtime Province family medical practice building on Main Street was up for sale in 2016, she called Northern.

“I called Stephanie and said, ‘Okay, we have this, are you ready to do what we’ve always talked about doing?’” Richardson said.

This historic Gothic-style building opened in 1906 as the first hospital in Johnson County and remained the only hospital until Johnson Memorial Hospital opened after World War II. William M. Province carried out the use of the building as a medical practice since then. Numerous patients passed through the doors of the building. With the retirement of William Province II in 2016, the practice ended.

“It’s a great location, but intriguing architecture and everything,” Richardson said.

Before purchasing the building, they wanted to make sure the location would get enough business, Richardson said.

“We did lots of organic market research about this corner,” Richardson said. “We would sit here when it was a doctor’s office, and we would just count foot traffic from the corner just to make sure it was a viable option to actually do it.”

The renovation of the building from a doctor’s office to a working café was a process that took two years, they said.

“The concept was evolving the whole time. This building was a working doctor’s office when we purchased it. There was still tissue paper on the tables,” Richardson said.

Renovation was the most challenging and time-consuming part of starting the business, they both said. Much like in many older buildings, they kept finding more and more features that needed to be worked on, Richardson said.

“We kept finding things in an old building that A. Were hidden gems, but B. Kind of provided a challenge for us,” Richardson said.

The new design of the building includes some new elements but also many of the original structures still stand, including the original exposed brick, front porch, windows and a hidden fireplace found during renovations. The second floor holds Dr. Province’s former office, which is now a gathering room named the Province Board Room in his family’s honor.

The women knew they wanted to open a café-style restaurant from the beginning. Northern had attended coffee school and Richardson attended a pastry school in preparation.

“We had always said we would do something involving food, but this (a cafe) is what was just natural,” Richardson said.

Menu items include different types of coffee drinks, soup, sandwiches and scratch-baked pastries. Northern said a signature item is their coffee, which is Lavazza coffee, an Italian coffee popular in Europe.

“It has a cult following,” Richardson said. “If you know somebody has it, it’s a big deal.”

Since their soft opening on Sept. 10, Main and Madison has had more than 1,900 customers, Richardson said.

Their coffee, scratch bakery, consistent hours and environment are what makes their restaurant stand out from other cafes in downtown Franklin, Richardson said.

“The thing that we’ve talked about the most is, number one, is a very welcoming atmosphere,” she said. “When every person walks through the door they should feel welcome.”

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Main and Madison Market Cafe is open every day.

Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Location: 100 N. Main St.

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