Fieldstone Farms Athletic Club
The neighborhood's central amenity, with pools, courts, and fitness facilities.
Fieldstone Farms · Franklin, TN
Updating and expanding Fieldstone Farms' 1990s homes
Fieldstone Farms is one of Franklin's largest established subdivisions, built on land that was a working farm through much of the 20th century. The houses are now thirty years old and in the middle of their second life — kitchens, primary suites, garages, and outdoor rooms are the common projects.
History & architecture
How Fieldstone Farms was built
The land was Cecilwood, a farm purchased in 1927 by Nashville attorney Cecil B. Sims, who graduated first in his class from Vanderbilt Law School and founded a Nashville firm in 1921.
Sims farmed the property as a self-taught hobbyist, rotating barley, oats, corn, and wheat with the help of the Sawyer family, and named the homestead for his son Sgt. Cecil Sims, Jr., who was lost in World War II.
The original three-room house was built of numbered beech logs moved from an 1800s Perkins cabin — an early example of the building relocation practice still common in Williamson County.
The farm was developed into the Fieldstone Farms subdivision during Franklin's late-1980s and 1990s expansion, producing a large, amenity-rich community of conventional suburban plats.
Residents have since documented the farm history, and the neighborhood remains one of the most recognizable names in Franklin's residential market.
- Typical era
- Late 1980s–1990s
- Dominant styles
- Suburban traditional — brick veneer, gabled two-story plans, attached garages
- Typical lot
- Platted subdivision lots, generally 9,000–15,000 sq ft
- Review
- HOA architectural review plus City of Franklin permits
Landmarks & shared spaces
Places that anchor Fieldstone Farms
Neighborhood greenways
Walking paths and connector trails looping through the subdivision.
Community pools and playgrounds
Multiple amenity clusters distributed across the neighborhood sections.
Cecilwood farm site
The original Sims family homestead land that became the neighborhood.
Businesses & districts
Where Fieldstone Farms gathers
Highway 96 West retail
Grocery, dining, and services at the neighborhood's main entrance.
Downtown Franklin
The historic Main Street district a short drive east.
Hillsboro Road corridor
Everyday services connecting the neighborhood north toward Brentwood.
Zoning & overlays
Common zoning codes in Fieldstone Farms
These are the base districts and overlays we see most often on Fieldstone Farms lots. Always confirm your parcel's district and overlays on the Metro zoning map before design decisions get expensive.
R2Residential 2 District
15,000 sq ft minimum lot, 75 ft width, 20 ft front, 10 ft side, 40 ft rear, 2 1/2 stories, 40% minimum landscape surface area.
R3Residential 3 District
9,000 sq ft minimum lot, 65 ft width, 20 ft front, 10 ft side, 30 ft rear, 2 1/2 stories principal and 2 stories accessory.
SDSpecific Development
Large master-planned subdivisions in Franklin are commonly entitled as specific developments, so recorded plat and approved plan standards govern where they differ from the district table.
Overlays that apply here
HOA
Fieldstone Farms architectural standards
The homeowners association reviews exterior alterations, additions, fences, and outbuildings — usually the first approval you need.
FWO / Floodplain
Floodway and floodplain overlays
Creek and drainage corridors within the neighborhood carry mapped floodplain limits where structures are restricted.
Permitting path
- 1Submit to the HOA architectural review first — exterior additions, fences, decks, and outbuildings are almost always covered.
- 2Pull the recorded plat. Franklin's ordinance defers to plat standards where they differ from the base district, and platted setbacks are common in subdivisions of this era.
- 3Verify your base district and lot geometry, then check the 40% landscape surface area requirement against the proposed addition, driveway, and patio together.
- 4No historic overlay or Certificate of Appropriateness applies here; City of Franklin permitting is the only municipal step.
- 5Confirm floodplain mapping if the lot backs onto a creek or drainage swale.
Why it matters
Fieldstone Farms's place in Franklin
Fieldstone Farms is one of Franklin's largest and best-known neighborhoods, and its amenity-first model set the template for the master-planned communities that followed.
It is a bellwether for Franklin's renovation market: a large, uniform stock of 1990s houses reaching the age where systems, kitchens, and plans all want updating at once.
Its farm origins are unusually well documented by residents, which gives the neighborhood a sense of place that most subdivisions of its era never developed.
Events & festivals
What happens in Fieldstone Farms
Fourth of July celebration
July
Neighborhood parade and pool party at the athletic club.
Community garage sale
Spring
Neighborhood-wide sale that draws the whole subdivision out.
Swim team season
Summer
Meets at the community pools, a defining social season for families here.
Holiday golf cart parade
December
Decorated cart procession through the neighborhood streets.
Designing here
What this means for your Fieldstone Farms project
- The recurring problem in this stock is a closed-off kitchen and a formal dining room nobody uses — plan reconfiguration often beats adding square footage.
- Rear additions are the default. In R3 the 30 ft rear setback and in R2 the 40 ft rear setback are the numbers that shape a family room or primary-suite bump.
- Main-level primary suites are the most requested structural change as owners plan to stay long term.
- Detached garages and workshops are feasible on the deeper lots but need to clear side/rear setbacks and the landscape surface area minimum.
- Match the brick and mortar or commit to a full-elevation update — a partial match reads worse than an intentional redesign, and the HOA will notice either way.
FAQ
Questions about Fieldstone Farms
Keep exploring
Other Franklin neighborhoods
Start your project
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