Grant Nebraska

City · Perkins County · County seat · Population 1,197 (2020 census) · ZIP 69140 · Founded 1886 · Peak population 1,270 (1980)

About Grant

Grant is a city of 1,197 (2020) and the seat of Perkins County, on the high plains at 3,416 feet, where NE 23 and NE 61 cross. NE 61 runs north on Central Avenue to Ogallala and I-80, about 20 miles away. Grant has the county hospital and schools, the Perkins County Museum and the offices of the Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railway, and like the rest of the county it is on Mountain Time.

History

Grant was platted in 1886 about a mile north of today's site and named for President Ulysses S. Grant. When the Burlington laid out its line west toward Colorado, residents gave the railroad a three-quarters interest in a new townsite on the right-of-way, and in May 1887 the town moved there, buildings and all. The first train arrived on July 4, 1887, and that fall three banks, two hardware stores, two lumberyards and a drugstore opened. When voters created Perkins County that November, Grant, Madrid and Lisbon competed for the county seat; Grant won in 1888 after two elections and, according to the county officials' association, a court ruling. By 1890 the gazetteer counted about 500 people.

The county used a frame courthouse until 1901 and then the 1889 First National Bank building at 301 Central Avenue. The present courthouse, designed by J. F. Reynolds of Sioux City, Iowa, and built by Cork and Ferrier of Manhattan, Kansas, for $126,000, was accepted on September 1, 1927. In 1936–39 the WPA built Grant City Park, with its arched concrete band shell and stone entrances, and paved streets and laid water and sewer mains. Grant reached its largest census count, 1,270, in 1980.

Gary Glick, born in Grant in 1930, was the first pick of the 1956 NFL draft and is described as the only defensive back ever taken first overall; he started at safety for the 1963 AFL champion San Diego Chargers. Frank Anderson, born here in 1959, was pitching coach of Tennessee's 2024 national champions; Bill Jackman (born 1963) played basketball at Duke and Nebraska; Hugh Davidson (born 1928) was head football coach at Montana; and singer-songwriter Danielle Anderson ("Danielle Ate the Sandwich") was born here in 1986.

Things to see

The Perkins County Courthouse, 200 Lincoln Ave., a Classical Revival courthouse of 1926–27 on the National Register · the Grant Commercial Historic District, Central Ave. from 1st to 4th St., with 31 historic buildings including the 1889 First National Bank (301 Central), a 1916 Conoco station (155 Central) and the 1927 C. C. Lyon Building (342 Central) · Grant City Park, Central Ave. between 8th and 9th Sts., built by the WPA in 1936–39, with a band shell, tennis courts and the city pool · the Perkins County Museum, 605 Central Ave.: a 1905 house, a country school moved from west of Brandon and an exhibit hall, open Friday and Saturday 9 a.m.–noon from May to New Year's or by appointment · Grant Golf Club, 9 holes, on N. Highway 61 · the Hastings Memorial Library, 505 Central Ave. · the Plainsman Inn, 1014 Central Ave., a motel with a 27-site RV park · the Perkins County Fair, July 10–18, 2026