The Granville Township post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Mount Palatine (1849), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 260 in 18802020 census: 2,777179 years
How historic is Granville Township?
B+
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Granville Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Granville Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Granville Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #245 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Granville Township’s overall grade.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Granville Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 (±5.0 points). 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 Granville Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1880 and 1890, then grew 9-fold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Granville Township’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Granville Township on the map, 1893 to 1979
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Granville Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893La Salle 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 Granville Township.
The village of Granville is named after Granville, Massachusetts. The founding of the St. Paul Mine in neighboring Mark in 1903 and the Berry Mine in nearby Standard in 1905 caused Granville to expand from a farming center to become a commercial center in a coal mining region.
On April 20, 2004, Granville was struck by a series of tornadoes, which destroyed the local primary school, the high school baseball diamond, and numerous houses.
The Granville Township post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Granville Township rank for history?
Granville Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #245 of 768 in Illinois. 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.
How old are the homes in Granville Township?
33% of Granville Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1962.
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 (4), 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.
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