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History · Graceville

Graceville’s post office opened in 1879, and 29% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Graceville Historical Marker. Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1939 on.

1879first post office
1on the National Register
29%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Graceville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Graceville began

When was Graceville founded?

1879

The Graceville post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lake Tokna (1871), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 529147 years
Founding year: the first Graceville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Graceville’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 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Graceville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Graceville’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 viewPharmacist filling prescription. Gracev…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Graceville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Graceville.

Read it all →

Graceville was founded in the 1870s by a colony of Catholics and named for Thomas Langdon Grace, the second Roman Catholic Bishop of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Covenant of our Lady of the Lake was a Native American residential school that operated in Graceville and opened in 1885. The school held Native American girls from Sisseton, South Dakota. In 1896, the US government withdrew its funding of the school and the students were sent back to Sisseton. The building was used as a school for students from the Graceville area for two years until it burned down in 1898.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Graceville, 1871 to 1940

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1871Post officeThe Lake Tokna post office opens
  3. 1879Post officeThe Lake Tokna post office closes
  4. 1879Post officeThe Graceville post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1939In the archivePharmacist filling prescription. Graceville, Minnesota
  7. 1940BuiltGraceville Historical Marker is built
By decade

Graceville, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s3 items
Pharmacist filling prescription. Graceville, Minnesota1939Pharmacist filling prescription. Graceville, MinnesotaHigh school boy talking to druggist. Graceville, Minnesota1939High school boy talking to druggist. Graceville, Minn…High school boys looking over shaving equipment in drug store. Graceville, Minnesota1939High school boys looking over shaving equipment in dr…
1940s–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
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.

Pharmacist filling prescription. Graceville, Minnesota
Retake this viewPharmacist filling prescription. Graceville, Minnesota, 1939

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Graceville

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2004
Graceville Historical Marker
Graceville Historical Marker, built 1940
Sites

Architectural styles listings

NPS Rustic1
Graceville Historical MarkerNPS Rustic · Built 1940

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

Graceville’s post office has been open since 1879. Another post office, Lake Tokna, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Lake Tokna
1871–1879
Graceville
1879–today
18701950today

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

Questions about Graceville’s history

What year was Graceville founded?

The Graceville post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Graceville?

One place: the Graceville Historical Marker (listed 2004).

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 the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.