About Glenvil
Glenvil is a village in Clay County, in the Hastings micropolitan area of south central Nebraska. The population was 267 at the 2020 census, down from 310 in 2010 and 332 in 2000. The village covers about 0.17 square miles.
History
The St Joseph and Denver City Railroad reached this point in the early 1870s and built a depot and section house. The stop was named Glenville, in keeping with the railroad's practice of naming its stations alphabetically. A school district formed in 1872. By 1879 the town had at least four stores, a grain elevator, coal and lumber yards, a blacksmith and a hotel. Most of the early settlers were German, arriving from Illinois or directly from Germany. The first newspaper appeared on 18 April 1895. The village incorporated on 1 May 1899, the same day the Bank of Glenvil opened. The postal service later dropped a letter from the name because mail was being confused with other towns called Glenville. In 1942 the federal government bought more than 48,700 acres nearby for a Naval Ammunition Depot, which cut the town's trade area roughly in half.
The school
Glenville School operated from 1903 to 1995. The Lincoln architect Alfred W. Woods designed the two-storey brick building and Hempel Brothers built it, with additions in 1924 and 1950. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
Visitor & Travel Categories
Business & Economic Categories
Glenvil is a Clay County village founded in 1873, originally platted and spelled "Glenville" until a 1914 renaming shortened it to its current form.
The town's 1903 schoolhouse, still known by its original name as the Glenville School, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1997, Bill Gates donated $5,000 toward a community playground after Glenvil residents wrote letters asking celebrities for help — a Glenvil native working in Hong Kong separately gave $20,000 toward the same project.