Welcome to The Liberty Vault!
The Shoppes at the Liberty Vault were an exciting addition to the Liberty Building, which has been an important part of the downtown Franklin history since 1910.

This new website is geared towards highlighting the small businesses, retail stores, and restaurants within the building. Check back often for event and business updates, leasing opportunities, and more!

About The Liberty Vault

Deep Harbour Properties

Deep Harbour Properties (DHP) is a real estate development and management company dedicated to serving the needs of our clients in Venango County in Western Pennsylvania. We take great pride in our properties, and we continuously invest in them. We provide value and stability to our commercial tenants so they can grow and expand their businesses and serve their clients better.

We consider our tenants part of our DHP family, and we hope you decide to come join us.

DHP works closely with the City of Franklin and Venango County to bring our historic buildings back from “urban blight” to vibrant centers of the community. We take interior spaces that have been unused for decades and restore them to desirable living and working space.

We have invested more than $2,000,000 of DHP funds and local governments have provided $150,000 in grants and loans since 2004, which went to projects like new roofs, electrical upgrades, façade improvements, window replacement, and more. We believe that this rehabilitation work is beneficial to the City of Franklin community as it dramatically adds to the attractiveness of the buildings as well as the surrounding areas that had been deemed as “blight”. Our work also contributes to the economic growth of the community.

The Liberty Building is the best place for office space in downtown Franklin. We offer an inclusive business lease package that includes your office space, heat, electricity, water, and garbage pick-up all for one flat price per month. We have individual suites available as small as 175 square feet, which are perfect for both start-up and satellite offices, as well as suites for growing and larger companies.

The Liberty Building means convenience, comfort and value for you and your employees. Is there a more risk free way to try a new location or start a new business?

The Franklin Trust Building - Liberty Vault History

The building you are standing in was built in 1907. It was then, and still is, the tallest building in Franklin, PA. When it opened, the building was home to the Franklin Trust Co. Bank and the US Post Office. The interior structure of the building was one of the few that employed a fireproof construction with a steel frame and tiled halls. It was simply known as, “The Franklin Trust Building.”

The area that is now called the “Shoppes at the Liberty Vault” was originally the bank services area. There were teller windows spanning the length of the floor with manager’s offices, and a money vault on the mezzanine. On the mezzanine is the door from that vault. In addition, each of the four upper floors had a large walk-in vault with a one-ton steel door and a separate money counting room with floor safes.

In the wake of the stock market crash of October 1929, people were growing increasingly anxious about the security of their money. Some 650 banks failed in 1929; the number would rise to more than 1,300 the following year. The Great Depression had begun. The Franklin Trust Company failed and closed its’ doors on October 5, 1931, and was taken over by the US Secretary of Banking. The bank vaults and many of the counting room safes remained in place-unused until 2012 when the building infrastructure was updated and renovated. The four upper floor vault doors were taken out by crane and scrapped. This vault door is a tribute to the history of what is now known as the Liberty Building.

Washington and Gist Cross the Allegheny River - Franklin History

Did you know that long before he made his famous crossing of the Delaware River, George Washington crossed the Allegheny River on a trip from what is now Franklin, Pennsylvania?

In the Fall of 1753, the Governor of Virginia was asked by the King of England to remove the French from British claimed lands in what is now Ohio and Pennsylvania, by force if necessary. The Governor chose a young 21-year-old Major from the Virginia Militia, named George Washington, to carry a letter to the French demanding their immediate withdrawal. Washington asked Christopher Gist, a colonial surveyor and frontiersman, to be his guide and translator. Gist had been one of the first European explorers of the present-day states of Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Their destination was the French Fort Machault, located at the confluence of French Creek with the Allegheny River, at present-day Franklin, a short walk from where you are standing now.

The men arrived at the Fort in early December. The French officer in charge said he did not have the power to negotiate with the British. He told Washington to go to Fort Le Boeuf, across the Allegheny, to meet with a higher-ranking officer. When Washington and Gist finally reached the French post at Fort Le Boeuf, he was given a polite but firm refusal to vacate the lands claimed by Britain.

The men had to cross the Allegheny again to return to Virginia, but the weather had turned significantly colder with continual snow. To cross the river, the pair built a raft of logs using just one hatchet—the only tool they possessed—laboring all day. Using poles, Washington and Gist barely managed to maneuver through the ice-clogged water. Struggling against the ice and water, numb and exhausted, the two had to abandon the raft and wade through a shallower part of the freezing water to an island. In the morning, the two battered survivors walked across some thicker ice to the shore and to safety. Washington reached Williamsburg, Virginia in mid-January 1754 and delivered the French reply. The French and Indian War began four months later in May of 1754.

Business Spotlight!