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History · Gentilly Township

Gentilly Township’s post office opened in 1880, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Church of St. Peter-Catholic. Below: maps from 1952 on.

1880first post office
1on the National Register
33%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Gentilly Township began

When was Gentilly Township founded?

1880

The Gentilly Township post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Gentilly (1880), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 260146 years
Founding year: the first Gentilly Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Gentilly Township’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 Gentilly Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Gentilly Township’s homes were built before 1964.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Gentilly Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Gentilly Township’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

Gentilly Township, in brief

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

Gentilly Township is a township in Polk County, Minnesota, United States. It is part of the Grand Forks-ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 319 at the 2000 census. Founded by French-Canadians, Gentilly Township was organized in 1879, and named after Gentilly, Quebec.

Its first post office opened in 1880. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 280 to 260 (-7%).

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

Timeline

Gentilly Township, 1880 to 1963

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Gentilly post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1952On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1963Post officeThe Gentilly post office closes
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.
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On the map

Gentilly Township on the map, 1952 to 1982

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

Gentilly Township on the 1952 USGS mapGentilly Township on the 1982 USGS map1952Red Lake Falls 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 Gentilly Township.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Gentilly Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Church of St. Peter-Catholic
Church of St. Peter-Catholic
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Neo-Gothic1
Church of St. Peter-CatholicNeo-Gothic

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

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

Another post office, Gentilly, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Gentilly
Gone or out of use
Gentilly Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Gentilly Township
Saint Peters

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.

Crookston TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLake Pleasant TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKertsonville TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLouisville TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Gentilly Township’s history

What year was Gentilly Township founded?

The Gentilly Township post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Gentilly Township?

One place: the Church of St. Peter-Catholic (listed 1982).

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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.