Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Greenville

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Greenville

Greenville’s post office opened in 1867

Most of Greenville was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1967. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1950 on, and the census since 1960.

1867first post office
0on the National Register
8%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Greenville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Greenville began

When was Greenville founded?

1867

The Greenville post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,140 in 19602020 census: 1,026159 years
Founding year: the first Greenville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Greenville’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,537 in 1980; 1,026 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Greenville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewWestern Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt.…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Greenville, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,6001960198020002020Peak: 1,537

Peaked at 1,537 in 1980; 1,026 people lived here in 2020.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

The story

How Greenville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Greenville.

Read it all →

The Maidu people had been living in the valley area around present-day Greenville for centuries when English-speaking settlers arrived in the 1850s during the Gold Rush. Among the earliest structures built in the community was a boarding house operated by Mr. and Mrs. Green. The community was named for Green, who was killed in the collapse of the first Round Valley Dam. When Henry C. Bidwell arrived in 1862 and opened a trading post, several business owners moved down from Round Valley to Greenville. Since its establishment, the main industries of Greenville were mining and logging, however, by the mid 1900s, mining had declined and logging and ranching became the main industries in Greenville. In the late 1800s, the Maidu tribe were granted over 200 acres of land by the US government where a boarding school was built which burned down in the 1920s. The land was later converted into a R…

ChaptersFires

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Greenville, 1867 to 1980

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867Post officeThe Greenville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1957In the archiveWestern Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt. and Indian Ck
  6. 1962Born hereJames Marsters is born here
  7. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 1,537
By decade

Greenville, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1950s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1950s1 item
Western Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt. and Indian Ck1957Western Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt. and Indian Ck
1960s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Today1 recent
Some of Roger Puta's Western Pacific Photos2016Some of Roger Puta's Western Pacific Photos
On the map

Greenville on the map, 1950 to 1994

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

Greenville on the 1950 USGS mapGreenville on the 1979 USGS mapGreenville on the 1994 USGS map1950Greenville sheet · 1:62,500

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

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Western Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt. and Indian Ck
Retake this viewWestern Pacific Zephyr above US 40 Alt. and Indian Ck, 1957

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Greenville’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Greenville’s post office has been open since 1867.

Gone or out of use
Arcadia MinemineIndian Valley MinemineNew York MinemineStandart Minemine
1cemetery inside Greenville
Greenville District

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Crescent MillsIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Greenville’s history

What year was Greenville founded?

The Greenville post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), 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) 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.