History · Greece

Greece dates to 1822, and 5 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #476 of 758 in New York. What drives it

Most of Greece was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 371 buildings. Below: maps from 1895 on and the census since 1830.

1822founded

5on the National Register

8%homes built before 1940

3famous people

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Quick answers

How Greece began

When was Greece founded?

1822

Greece dates its founding to 1822 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1830.

First census: 2,574 in 18302020 census: 96,926204 years

How historic is Greece?

A⁻

More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1825.The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Greece’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greece is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #476 of 758 in New York. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

A⁻

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Greece’s overall grade.

Founding era1822, from Wikidata: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA⁻Homes built before 19407.5% of homes (±1.0) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%C⁺National Register5 listings, 377 historic buildings, 39.5 per 10,000 residents · typical NY town 12.3 · U.S. 2.4A⁻

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 76%

NewerOlder

New York towns of 2,500+ (758)Ahead of 37%

New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Greece’s 39.5 sits above most of its state (65% of New York towns have fewer) while its 377 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A−. The pre-1940 share (±1.0 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1822.

Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Greece’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A historic districtThe Koda-Vista Historic District takes in 371 historic buildings.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Greece, and 13 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Greece are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1910 and 1920, then grew more than tenfold.

★ What stands out · On the National Register

5 listings protect 377 historic buildings

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

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

377

each building in a district counts

first listed

1989

Our Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church Com…

BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Romanesque Revival1

Greek Revival1

Queen Anne1

Colonial Revival1

Our Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church ComplexRomanesque Revival · Built 1859

Covert, William, Cobblestone FarmhouseGreek Revival

William A. Payne HouseQueen Anne · Built 1905

All 5 listings

Greece Memorial HallBuilding · listed 1998 Koda-Vista Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2019

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

Greece had its own post office from 1825 to 1901. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Greece

1825–1901

North Greece

1835–today

South Greece

1852–1901

Mount Read

1860–1900

18201920today

Hamlets and corners on the map

Braddock HeightsCharlotteCrescent BeachElmgroveGrand View BeachGrand View HeightsIsland Cottage BeachManitou BeachMount ReadNorth GreecePayne BeachRigney BluffSouth Greece

Gone or out of use

Central Drive-InlocaleFrisbee Hill SchoolschoolGreece StationlocaleLakeshore Drive-InlocaleNorth SchoolschoolSchool Number 13schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 9school

3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Greece

Britton RoadFallsFalls

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

Help out

Start Greece’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greece’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

How Greece came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Greece.

Read it all →

Indigenous tribes had settled the area surrounding the Finger Lakes and moved northward to Lake Ontario, the Genesee River, Irondequoit Bay, and the ponds of Greece as early as 1300 AD. These people were Iroquoian tribes, early cousins of the Seneca, who traded with the Algonquin and Wendat (Huron) tribes. By about 1550 AD the Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga and Onondaga combined to form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. (The Tuscarora would later migrate from the Carolinas and join the Confederacy.) They remained the dominant inhabitants of the region for the next 200 years.

ChaptersPrehistory European contact Early settlement Greece in the War of 1812 Establishment of the Town of Greece 1822-present

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Greece in 1881

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

from Sparta all pold and silver money, and allowed nothinp but bars ol' iron to pass in exclianpe for every cominotlity. It is, however, absurd to ascribe such a repidation to Lycurpus, since silver money was first coined in Greece by Phidon of Arpos in the succeeding pcneration, and pold money was… — **A history of Greece, from the earliest times to the Roman conquest. With supplementary chapters on the history of literature and art**1881 · page 70Read the page →
Read the text
from Sparta all pold and silver money, and allowed nothinp but bars ol' iron to pass in exclianpe for every cominotlity. It is, however, absurd to ascribe such a repidation to Lycurpus, since silver money was first coined in Greece by Phidon of Arpos in the succeeding pcneration, and pold money was first coined in Asia, and was very little known in Greece, even in the time of the Peloj)onucsiau war. In this case, as in others, the usage of later times was converted into a primitive institution of the lawpiver. As
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Ever since the peace of Antalcidas the great King had become the recognised mediator between the states of Greece ; and his fiat seemed indispensable to stamp the claims of that city which pretended to the headship. The recent achievements of Thebes might entitle her to aspire to that position ; an… — **A history of Greece, from the earliest times to the Roman conquest. With supplementary chapters on the history of literature and art**1881 · page 479Read the page →
Read the text
Ever since the peace of Antalcidas the great King had become the recognised mediator between the states of Greece ; and his fiat seemed indispensable to stamp the claims of that city which pretended to the headship. The recent achievements of Thebes might entitle her to aspire to that position ; and at all events the alterations which she had produced in the intei'nal state of Greece, by the establishment of Megalopolis and Messene, seemed to require for their stability the sanction of a Persian rescript.
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.

Timeline

Greece, 1822 to 2020

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

19th century
1822
FoundingGreece is established
1825Post officeThe Greece post office opens
1835Post officeThe North Greece post office opens
1852Post officeThe South Greece post office opens
1859BuiltOur Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church Complex is built
1870Born hereJessie Bonstelle is born here
1885Born hereFred J. Slater is born here
1895On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
20th century
1901Post officeThe Greece post office closes
1901Post officeThe South Greece post office closes
1905BuiltWilliam A. Payne House is built
1969Born hereJennifer Cody is born here
21st century
2020CensusPopulation peaks at 96,926

On the map

Greece on the map, 1895 to 1994

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

1895Rochester 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 Greece.

Every building

Greece, building by building, 1929

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Greece fire insurance map, 1929, sheet 1

1929Sheet 1 of 4

Sheets

+3 more at the Library of Congress

BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

People over time

Greece, census by census

Lost half of its people between 1910 and 1920, then grew more than tenfold.

20 censuses, 1830–2020.

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

Famous people

3 famous people were born in Greece

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Jennifer CodyAmerican actress and dancer · b. 1969

Jessie BonstelleAmerican theater manager, director and actress · b. 1870

Fred J. SlaterAmerican politician in New York · b. 1885

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Rochester123 historic placesA⁺Gates1 historic placeB⁻North GatesIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town Parma2 historic placesB⁺

Questions about Greece’s history

What year was Greece founded?

In 1822, according to Wikidata. Greece’s post office opened in 1825, and the census of 1830 counted 2,574 people here.

How does Greece rank for history?

Greece is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #476 of 758 in New York. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Greece?

5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Our Mother of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church Complex (listed 1989, the first), and 1 historic district, the Koda-Vista Historic District, with 371 contributing buildings. 377 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Greece?

8% of Greece’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1972.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (26), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.

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