5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 1 buildings between them. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1850.
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1867. Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Greensboro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greensboro is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Greensboro’s overall grade.
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 Greensboro’s 37.5 sits above most of its state (73% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.6 points). Two sources give 1823.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Greensboro’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1884Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
People over time
Greensboro, census by census
Peaked at 3,371 in 1970; 2,218 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Greensboro’s Wikipedia page.
By decade
Greensboro, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Greensboro was incorporated as a town in December 1823 as "Greensborough". It was named in honor of American Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene. The name was soon simplified to "Greensboro". The community was known as "Troy" prior to incorporation.
Reflecting the history of the antebellum years and a culture built on cotton plantations to produce the commodity crop, several sites on the National Register of Historic Places in or near Greensboro are connected to this past. These include Glencairn, the Greensboro Historic District, Magnolia Grove, the McGehee-Stringfellow House, Millwood, and the Payne House.
Passages that mention Greensboro, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Greensboro, Alabama from its earliest settlement1908 · page 130Read the page →
Read the text
On December 16th, 1869, an Act was approved incorporating the Greensboro Fire Company No. 1, the corporate name being the "Greensboro Fire Company No. 1, of the town of Greensboro, Alabama," Those named in the body of the Act as incorporators are : L. J. Lawson, R. H. Jackson, George Breitenbach, E. T. Hutchinson, T. J. Seay and A. H. Benners. The following is a roll of "Greensboro Fire Company No. 1:"
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Greensboro, Alabama from its earliest settlement1908 · page 80Read the page →
Read the text
In 1858, Miles Hassell Yerby, a graduate of the State University at Tuscaloosa, came to Greensboro and taught the first public school near the town of which any record can be found. The school house was situated outside of the corporate limits, northeast of Greensboro, across
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Greensboro, 1823 to 1979
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1823, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Greensboro’s post office opened in 1867, and the census of 1850 counted 2,500 people here.
How does Greensboro rank for history?
Greensboro is more historic than 78% 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 Greensboro?
5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Magnolia Grove (listed 1973, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Greensboro Historic District and the Payne House, with 1 contributing buildings. 8 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Greensboro?
11% of Greensboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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