A history of Grenora,
since 1916
Postcards, papers and photographs of Grenora from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusGrenora is a city in Williams County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 221 at the 2020 census. Grenora was founded in July 1916 at the terminus of a Great Northern Railway branch line that began in Stanley. The name is a portmanteau of letters in the railway's name: GREat NOrthern RAilway. The tracks were in place until 2002, when Great Northern successor BNSF Railway filed for abandonment. The city's motto is, "Friendliness lives here – you're only a stranger once." The city is home to a senior citizen's center, credit union, gas station, grain elevator, restaurant, bar, apartment buildings, and community-built low-income housing. There are also two churches: the St. Olaf Lu…
Grenora was established in 1916. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 244 to 221 (-9%). Half of its homes were built before 1959.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Grenora yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Grenora’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewUntitled, 1935: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people close to Grenora
See all 1 →Grenora, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Grenora is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Grenora has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Aage and Kristine Larsen Homestead in Antelope, 11.5 miles away.
Grenora and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Untitled (1935) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.