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C+History
History · Grant

Grant’s post office opened in 1887, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 41% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of Grant was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 10 buildings. Below: maps from 1936 on and the census since 1950.

1887first post office
1on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Grant began

When was Grant founded?

1887

The Grant post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 191 in 19502020 census: 1,039139 years

How historic is Grant?

C+

More historic than 41% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Grant post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Grant’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Grant is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Grant’s overall grade.
Founding era1887, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19401.9% of homes (±1.8) · typical AL town 3.2% · U.S. 8.4%C−National Register1 listing, 10 historic buildings, 74.9 per 10,000 residents · typical AL town 2.7 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 41%
NewerOlder

Alabama towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Alabama town has 2.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Grant’s 74.9 sits above most of its state (79% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share (±1.8 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Grant’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Grant are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Grant’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grant’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Grant came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Grant.

Read it all →

Grant was settled in the late 1830s, and a post office was established in 1887. The town was named in honor of General Ulysses S. Grant, as many residents in the area had supported the Union during the American Civil War.

In 1924, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) established the Kate Duncan Smith DAR School in Grant as part of a program to build schools in areas that lacked access to public education. The school, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, still serves K-12 students, and remains the only K-12 school owned and operated by the DAR.

The town was incorporated on November 15, 1945, with Delbert Hodges serving as the first mayor.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Grant, 1887 to 1936

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1887Post officeThe Grant post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1924BuiltKate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution School is built
  5. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Grant, decade by decade

Today5 recent
Grant-buildings-Main-6th-al2017Grant-buildings-Main-6th-alGrant-Welcome-Center-al2017Grant-Welcome-Center-alGrant-Town-Hall-al2017Grant-Town-Hall-alGrant-Main-Street-al2017Grant-Main-Street-alGrant-Library-al2017Grant-Library-al
On the map

Grant on the map, 1936 to 1982

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grant. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Grant on the 1936 USGS mapGrant on the 1947 USGS mapGrant on the 1950 USGS mapGrant on the 1973 USGS mapGrant on the 1982 USGS map1936Grant sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grant.

On the National Register

1 listing protects 10 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
10
each building in a district counts
first listed
2002
Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Rev…
Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution School, built 1924
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals1
Craftsman1
Rectangular Plan1
All 1 listings
Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution SchoolDistrict · listed 2002

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Grant, census by census

02004006008001,00019601980200020201,039

Grew from 191 people in 1950 to 1,039 in 2020, 5 times over.

8 censuses, 1950–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Grant’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Grant’s history

What year was Grant founded?

The Grant post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Grant rank for history?

Grant is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Grant?

One place: the Kate Duncan Smith Daughters of the American Revolution School (listed 2002).

How old are the homes in Grant?

2% of Grant’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1997.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

From Wikimedia Commons (5), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.