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History · Grady

Grady’s post office opened in 1907

Most of Grady was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1948. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1940.

1907first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: Leaflet · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Grady began

When was Grady founded?

1907

The Grady post office opened in 1907, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 237 in 19402020 census: 86119 years
Founding year: the first Grady post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Grady’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 Grady are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Grady’s homes were built before 1948.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Grady’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grady’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 Grady came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Grady.

Read it all →

Grady was established in 1907 with a strong community of farming and ranching. The Village was named after Pearl B. Grady, who owned most of the town site. Pearl Grady was also the first postmaster.

Grady was chosen as the pending railroad depot for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway (ATSF), but as it turned out, Grady was by-passed.

During Grady's history, the village had a hotel, two grocery stores, a bank, a doctor, a dentist, a drugstore, café, lumber & hardware store and a few other small businesses.

In 1925 a fire consumed the entire south side of the village destroying all of the businesses except the hotel.

In February 1952, a tornado hit Grady, with a number of homes destroyed.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Grady, 1907 to 1954

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1907Post officeThe Grady post office opens
  3. 1929Born hereVan Howard is born here
  4. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Grady, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Grady New Mexico City Hall 20112011Grady New Mexico City Hall 2011NMMap-doton-Grady2004NMMap-doton-Grady
On the map

Grady on the map, 1954 to 1971

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

Grady on the 1954 USGS mapGrady on the 1971 USGS map1954Clovis sheet · 1:250,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grady.

People over time

Grady, census by census

010020019401960198020002020Peak: 237

Between 86 and 237 people in every census since 1940.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

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

Questions about Grady’s history

What year was Grady founded?

The Grady post office opened in 1907, 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 →
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.