The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The present city was laid out in 1847 on land supposedly owned by the heirs of Sen. John Brown and was probably named for his grandson B. Gratz Brown, who later became a senator from and governor of Missouri and made a failed vice-presidential bid in 1872 with Horace Greeley of the Liberal Republicans.
Before the lock and dam system was built on the Kentucky River, Gratz was one of the most prosperous towns in the area due to the business of portaging goods around an unnavigable part of the river (Lock #2 is just up river at Lockport). Goods were also ferried across the river and transported up KY 22 to Pleasureville, which had a railroad depot.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Gratz’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Gratz’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Gratz, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Gratz is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Gratz has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Mason Brown House in Gratz, 2.9 miles away.
Gratz and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.