Franklin Square, circa 1921, view looking west
The two Morrill blocks, constructed by Joseph Morrill in 1844 and 1870, dominate the landscape of Franklin Square in 1921. The smaller block on the left bordering Second Street, is the earlier structure.
Businesses in these blocks included Spofford-Allis Clothing, Melnick’s Shoe Store, Daeris’s confectionary and ice cream shop called The Sugar Bowl, Lothrops & Pinkham’s pharmacy, Byron F. Hayes Dry Goods and Ladies Furnishings, the giant Lothrop-Farnham department store in the “new” Morrill block, and United Cigars on the Third Street corner. Upstairs on the second floor were: Charles H. Bradley real estate and insurance and dentists Herbert A. Bartlett and F.H.G. Whitehouse. Both of these blocks burned to the ground in 1932.
The fountain in the middle of the square was donated to the City of Dover by the Morrill family in 1914.