Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1828.
History grade
What drives Greig’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greig is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Greig’s overall grade.
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 Greig’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.8 points). Two sources give 1828.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Greig’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 2,638 in 1870; 1,199 people lived here in 2010.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Greig’s Wikipedia page.
On the map
Greig on the map, 1905 to 1966
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Greig. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1905Port Leyden 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 Greig.
The story so far
Greig, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Greig yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Greig is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States, named after Congressman John Greig. The town was founded in 1828 from land taken from the town of Watson. Originally named "Brantingham", the town changed to its present name in 1832. Brantingham still survives as a hamlet within the boundaries of Greig, as a postal identity and for Brantingham Lake, to the east of town. As of the 2010 census, the population of Greig was 1,199.
Greig was established in 1828. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,199 in 2010, 1,179 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Greig in 1883
Passages that mention Greig, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Lewis County, New York1883 · page 233Read the page →
Read the text
The first town meeting in this town (then including the present town of Lyonsdale, and at a time when the present town of Greig was almost uninhabited,) was held at the house of Dr. Simon Goodell, at which Mr. Goodell was chosen Supervisor ; Joshua Harris, Clerk ; Jedediah Plumb, George Pinney
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Lewis County, New York1883 · page 172Read the page →
Read the text
Woolworth, since secretary of the Board of Regents. He lived on the farm until the age of twenty, and in 1853, left home and came to the town of Greig, Lewis county, where he worked for C. W. Pratt, a tanner, for three years at twelve dollars per month, during which time he mastered the trade of sole leather
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
Greig, 1822 to 1905
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1828, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Greig’s post office opened in 1828, and the census of 1830 counted 662 people here.
How does Greig rank for history?
Greig is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Greig?
22% of Greig’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (1), 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 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.
2011