Grand View became Douglas County's third county seat in 1882, defeating Huston and Douglas City by 11 votes after Brownsdale, the first county seat, had proved a brief but expensive phantom city. Platted on August 21st by Kingsley G. Foster, Joe Devy, and Rufus D. Prescott, it began county business in the Foster-Devy store, which served as the courthouse for 12 years. Located on the Fort Randall-Mitchell and Scotland-Plankinton stage lines, Grand View was the undisputed metropolis of the area until the railroad reached Armour in 1886. The village was divided by intense rivalries between Upper Grand View, the original plat aligned with the Foster-Devy interests, and Lower Grand View to the south and west, each with its own newspaper, band, and leading institutions. Upper Grand View had a bank, the D. C. Chronicle, a church, hotels, the courthouse, and the Silver Cornet Band, while Lower Grand View had the S. D. Tribune, the post office instead of the courthouse, and the Martial Band. George W. Atwood, an original Lower Town sponsor, left that section for Upper Town in 1885, the only such defection. After Armour gained the railroad, people began leaving, and although Grand View survived two close county-seat elections, it lost that status in 1894. As county seat, it never established a local government.