Grayville is a city in Edwards and White counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 1,550, down from 1,666 at the 2010 census. Grayville is the birthplace of naval hero James Meredith Helm. History Grayville was founded in about 1810 by the head of the Gray family, James Gray. The city became popular for its oil. Many people came to drill for oil. In the 1950s the population began to drop. Unlike other Illinois oil towns like Crossville, Illinois Grayville is still relevant to its Two Counties Geography Grayville is located at (38.259146, -87.996678). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Grayville has a total area of , of which (or 98.02%) is land and (or 1.98%) is water. Roads In Grayville, Illinois Route 130 meets Illinois Route 1, and Route 1 meets Interstate 64. Grayville was built on the Wabash River. While it is no longer on any major rail line, it was home to a large rail bridge across the Wabash into Indiana, but sections of that bridge collapsed in January 2005 due to a major flood of the Wabash River. In late 2005, an ethanol plant was proposed for the Grayville area, and the construction of the plant would have included rebuilding the bridge and rail lines leading to it on both the Indiana and Illinois sides of the river, but as of July 2009, neither the plant nor the bridge have been built. The largest bridge to Indiana south of Lawrenceville, and the only Interstate link between Illinois and Indiana south of Terre Haute, the I-64 river crossing runs parallel to the collapsed rail bridge, about 1000 feet upstream. Demographics As of the 2020 census there were 1,550 people, 680 households, and 400 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 808 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.45% White, 0.32% African American, 0.06% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 0.52% from other races, and 3.81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.61% of the population. There were 680 households, out of which 44.41% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.24% were married couples living together, 14.12% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.18% were non-families. 33.97% of all households