Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Greenwood

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 · Greenwood

Greenwood’s post office opened in 1849, and 50% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1926 on and the census since 1880.

1849first post office
0on the National Register
50%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Greenwood began

When was Greenwood founded?

1849

The Greenwood post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1995. Another post office, Hope (1848), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 137 in 18802020 census: 324177 years
Founding year: the first Greenwood post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1995.

What stands out about Greenwood’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 Greenwood are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Greenwood’s homes were built before 1938.Deep rootsA post office since 1849: 177 years of Greenwood.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Greenwood’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greenwood’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 so far

Greenwood, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Greenwood yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Greenwood is a village in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is a commuter village, part of the Chicago metropolitan area It was incorporated as a village on April 4, 1995. The population was 324 at the 2020 census.

Its first post office opened in 1849. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 255 to 324 (+27%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Greenwood, 1848 to 1926

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1848Post officeThe Hope post office opens
  3. 1849Post officeThe Hope post office closes
  4. 1849Post officeThe Greenwood post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1905Post officeThe Greenwood post office closes
  7. 1926On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
From the old history books

What they wrote about Greenwood in 1922

Passages that mention Greenwood, cut from the printed page as they were published.

CEMETERIES About one-half mile south of the village of Greenwood lies Greenwood cemetery. It is the oldest burying place in Greenwood Township. Here repose many of the pioneers of the township.
History of McHenry County, Illinois1922 · page 403Read the page →
Read the text

CEMETERIES About one-half mile south of the village of Greenwood lies Greenwood cemetery. It is the oldest burying place in Greenwood Township. Here repose many of the pioneers of the township.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
below the tirsi one just named. It was also a water-mill. In 1845 they also erected a grist-mill at an expense of $5.0(10. but this mill was destroyed l>y a tire in lMi:!. Job Toles buili a grist-mill in the village of Greenwood at a little later date. The flour-milling industry has long since been…
History of McHenry County, Illinois1922 · page 404Read the page →
Read the text

below the tirsi one just named. It was also a water-mill. In 1845 they also erected a grist-mill at an expense of $5.0(10. but this mill was destroyed l>y a tire in lMi:!. Job Toles buili a grist-mill in the village of Greenwood at a little later date. The flour-milling industry has long since been left to the great milling centers, near to the supply of northern wheat and the farmers all buy their Hour.

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.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Greenwood on the map, 1926 to 1992

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

Greenwood on the 1926 USGS mapGreenwood on the 1944 USGS mapGreenwood on the 1963 USGS mapGreenwood on the 1972 USGS mapGreenwood on the 1992 USGS map1926McHenry 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 Greenwood.

People over time

Greenwood, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020324

Grew from 137 people in 1880 to 324 in 2020.

4 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Greenwood

Nobody well known was born in Greenwood itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
T
Tom AmandesActor · b. 1959
Gigi GoodeAmerican drag queen · b. 1997
C. J. FiedorowiczAmerican football player · b. 1991
E
Earl CooleyAmerican politician · b. 1880
Henry Alfred ToddAmerican philologist · b. 1854
Quinn RedekerAmerican actor and screenwriter · b. 1936
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Greenwood had its own post office from 1849 to 1905. Another post office, Hope, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hope
1848–1849
Greenwood
1849–1905
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Barnard Mill
Gone or out of use
Howe Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Greenwood
Greenwood

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.

Wonder LakeIts storyC−

Questions about Greenwood’s history

What year was Greenwood founded?

The Greenwood post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1995.

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 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 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.