Grandview was settled in 1850 on a land grant from Governor Elisha M. Pease, with supplies hauled by ox-wagon from Houston. Its name came from a visitor's exclamation, "what a grand view!" A church was organized in 1853, a post office opened in 1856, and the county's first Masonic lodge was founded in 1860. In 1883 the town moved to this site on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas rail line, and it was incorporated in 1891. It was home to Grand View Collegiate Institute from 1897 to 1907. A devastating fire in 1920 razed 135 homes, schools, churches, and businesses, and in 1925 the town's name was changed to Grandview as one word.