The story
Read it all →How Granville came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Granville.
Granville was originally called Grandville, after a nearby river island.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
B−History
History · Granville
Granville’s post office opened in 1816, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
1816first post office
0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Quick answers
How Granville began
When was Granville founded?
1816
The Granville post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Duke (1888) and Mona (1899), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,355210 years
How historic is Granville?
B−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 53% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Granville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Granville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Granville is more historic than 53% 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 Granville’s overall grade.
Founding era1816, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194014.5% of homes (±7.4) · typical WV town 13.0% · U.S. 8.4%BNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical WV town 29.6 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 53%
NewerOlder
West Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical West Virginia town has 29.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Granville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of West Virginia 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 B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Granville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Granville’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Granville’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices and places now gone
Granville’s post office has been open since 1816. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Granville
Duke
Mona
18101920today
Gone or out of use
Granville Schoolschool
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Timeline
Granville, 1816 to 1962
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Granville in 1883
Passages that mention Granville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time1883 · page 104Read the page →
Read the text
fulfilled the expectations of its projectors. The Northwestern Turnpike, which passed by Smithtown, afterward became the great avenue of trade and travel. An academy was incorporated'in 1814, and the town of Granville (two miles from Morgantown on the river) was established. Public
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Monongalia County, West Virginia, from its first settlements to the present time1883 · page 123Read the page →
Read the text
A meeting attended by citizens of Grant and Cass districts, was held at Granville, December 27, 1882, whose object “was to devise some plan by which to get a railroad through these districts.” The meeting decided that the route “ commencing at the Pennsylvania line in the district of Cass, thence to Granville and up Dent’s Run by the most practicable route to the Marion County line in the district of Grant,” was the most desirable. A committee was ap-
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.
By decade
Granville, decade by decade
Today2 recent
2017
2004Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Granville’s history
What year was Granville founded?
The Granville post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Granville rank for history?
Granville is more historic than 53% 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 Granville?
15% of Granville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 13% for a West Virginia town; the median home was built in 1996.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.