History · Grandview

Grandview’s history is
mostly unwritten

The public archives hold no old photos of Grandview. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.

0old images & papers
0recent photos

The story

from WikipediaRead it all ↗

Grand View was platted on August 21, 1882, by Kingsley G. Foster, Joe Devy and Rufus D. Prescott. The former two owned a store on the eastern side of town which served as the county courthouse. It narrowly beat Huston and Douglas City, both long since abandoned. Douglas County had a turbulent history, with its first county seat a paper town named Brownsdale, which was created by a con artist named Walter H. Brown. The scandal had been uncovered by county resident and future South Dakota Attorney General Robert Dollard. Governor Nehemiah Ordway, who had been involved in the Brownsdale scandal, supported Huston as the county seat. Dollard allegedly provided beer to county residents to support Grand View as the new county seat.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Be one of the first

Start Grandview’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grandview’s history is told.

0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Famous people from GrandviewWriters, athletes, leaders and more who were born in Grandview.Meet them →
By decade

Grandview, decade by decade

Before
2000
No old photos in the archives yetWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
📷 Add from your album

Then & now

When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.

Stories next door

nearby towns’ history
The porch light’s on

Where to, neighbor?

You’re in Grandview, SDDouglas CountyView boundary

Nearby

All towns & citiesExplore the map
Loading boundary…

Grandview is your selected town. The feed includes posts assigned to this town, not a distance radius or ZIP code.

Neighborhoods narrow the feed further, while townwide announcements, events, and issues remain visible.

Boundary source: https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/15 · 2025-01-01