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History · Gratz

Gratz’s post office opened in 1851, and 56% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1906 on and the census since 1880.

1851first post office
0on the National Register
56%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Gratz began

When was Gratz founded?

1851

The Gratz post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Clay Lick (1844), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 128 in 18802020 census: 67175 years
Founding year: the first Gratz post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Gratz’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 Gratz are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Gratz’s homes were built before 1938.Boom and bustPeaked at 246 in 1900; 67 people lived here in 2020.On the map since 19063 editions of the USGS map, 1906 to 1987. Watch Gratz change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Gratz’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Gratz came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Gratz.

Read it all →

The present city was laid out in 1847 on land supposedly owned by the heirs of Sen. John Brown and was probably named for his grandson B. Gratz Brown, who later became a senator from and governor of Missouri and made a failed vice-presidential bid in 1872 with Horace Greeley of the Liberal Republicans.

Before the lock and dam system was built on the Kentucky River, Gratz was one of the most prosperous towns in the area due to the business of portaging goods around an unnavigable part of the river (Lock #2 is just up river at Lockport). Goods were also ferried across the river and transported up KY 22 to Pleasureville, which had a railroad depot.

ChaptersPost office and female postmasters

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

People over time

Gratz, census by census

010020018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 246

Peaked at 246 in 1900; 67 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Timeline

Gratz, 1844 to 1906

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1844Post officeThe Clay Lick post office opens
  3. 1851Post officeThe Clay Lick post office closes
  4. 1851Post officeThe Gratz post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900CensusPopulation peaks at 246
  7. 1906On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Gratz, decade by decade

Today1 recent
KYMap-doton-Gratz2004KYMap-doton-Gratz
On the map

Gratz on the map, 1906 to 1987

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

Gratz on the 1906 USGS mapGratz on the 1953 USGS mapGratz on the 1987 USGS map1906Lockport 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 Gratz.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Gratz’s post office has been open since 1851. Another post office, Clay Lick, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Clay Lick
1844–1851
Gratz
1851–today
18401930today
Gone or out of use
Gratz Post Officepost officeGratz Sulphur WellwellSchool Number Twenty-Threeschool

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

Questions about Gratz’s history

What year was Gratz founded?

The Gratz post office opened in 1851, 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 →
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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 (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.