List of the oldest buildings in the United States

This article attempts to list the oldest extant freestanding buildings constructed in the United States of America by Europeans (English, Spanish, Dutch, French, Swedish, Germans), Africans, Native Americans and other immigrants and native born people. The list also includes sites in current states and territories that were not part of the original Thirteen Colonies when the United States of America was founded in 1776. Sites on the list are generally from the First Period of American architecture or earlier.

Building	Image	Location	State	First Built	Use	Notes
Ancestral Puebloan communities		New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah	NM AZ CO UT	750 - Pueblo construction begins in CE 750 and continues to present	Villages	Majority of settlements abandoned, but some very well preserved. Buildings have been within the U.S. since 1848, when New Mexico was annexed.
Taos Pueblo		north of the modern city of Taos	NM	1000 - Built between 1000 and 1450 CE	Residential	Said to be the oldest continuously inhabited houses still occupied. Buildings have been within the U.S. since 1848, when New Mexico was annexed.
Acoma Pueblo		on top of a 367-foot (112 m) sandstone mesa in Cibola County	NM	1000 - Built between 1000 and 1200 CE	Residential	Said to be the oldest continuously inhabited site in the U.S.. Buildings have been within the U.S. since 1848, when New Mexico was annexed.
Cathedral of San Juan Bautista		Old San Juan	PR	1521	Religious	Part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Oldest church building on US soil originally built in its current location (extensive additions and renovations). The Cathedral has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898.
San José Church		Old San Juan	PR	1532	Religious	Part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Additions and renovations over the centuries. The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898.
La Fortaleza		Old San Juan	PR	1533	Government	Part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Oldest executive mansion in the New World. Extensive reconstructions took place. Building has been within the U.S. since 1898 when Puerto Rico was annexed.
Castillo San Felipe del Morro		Old San Juan	PR	1539	Government	Part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Construction started in 1539, with extensive additions over the centuries. Building has been within the U.S. since 1898 when Puerto Rico was annexed.
Porta Coeli		San Germán	PR	1609	Religious	The church has been on U.S. territory since Puerto Rico was annexed in 1898.
Palace of the Governors		Santa Fe	NM	1610	Government	Oldest seat of colonial government (Spanish). Building has been within the U.S. since 1848, when New Mexico was annexed.
San Miguel Mission		Santa Fe	NM	1610	Government	Said to be the oldest church structure built in the USA. The original adobe walls and altar were built by the Tlaxcalan Indians from Mexico, but much of the structure was rebuilt in 1710. Building has been within the U.S. since 1848 when New Mexico was annexed.
Fairbanks House		Dedham	MA	1637	Residential	Oldest house in the United States of timber-frame with date verified using dendrochronology.
John Humphreys House		Swampscott	MA	1637 c.	Residential	Oldest house in Swampscott; moved in 1891 to present site (99 Paradise Road) from Elmwood Road.
C. A. Nothnagle Log House		Gibbstown	NJ	1638–43 c.	Residential	Purportedly the oldest surviving log house in the U.S. and the oldest house in New Jersey.
Henry Whitfield House		Guilford	CT	1639	Residential	Oldest stone American Colonial house; oldest house in Connecticut.
Jamestown Church		Jamestown	VA	1639-43	Religious	Oldest building in Jamestown (though only the church tower and foundations remain from the original building.
Loomis Homestead		Windsor	CT	1640	Residential	One of the oldest timber-frame houses in America. The oldest part of the house was built in 1640 by Joseph Loomis, who came to America from England in 1638. Later additions to the Loomis house were made around the turn of the eighteenth century.
Richard Sparrow House		Plymouth	MA	1640	Residential	Oldest house in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Lower Swedish Cabin		Drexel Hill	PA	ca. 1640–50	Residential	One of the earliest extant examples of Swedish log construction in the United States.
Comfort Starr House		Guilford	CT	1645–6	Residential	The house, still in its primitive state, is named after its second owner, Comfort Starr.
De Vargas Street House		Santa Fe	NM	1646	Residential	Previously alleged to be oldest house in the USA and Santa Fe.
General Israel Putnam House		Danvers	MA	1648 c.	Residential	Recorded in the National Register of Historic Places. The house is now operated by the Danvers Historical Society and open by appointment.
Old House		Cutchogue	NY	1649	Residential	One of the oldest houses in the state; moved in 1661 to present site from Southold.
Pickering House		Salem	MA	1651	Residential	Located in the Chestnut Street District.
Wyckoff House		Brooklyn	NY	1652	Residential	Oldest house in New York City.
Macy-Colby House		Amesbury	MA	pre-1654	Residential	Built by Thomas Macy, and owned by Anthony Colby and his descendants for 245 years. Now owned by the Bartlett Cemetery Association, and maintained by the Friends of the Macy-Colby House Association.
Block House		Claymont	DE	1654	Residential	One of the oldest structures in Delaware, built by the Swedish.
Ryves Holt House		Lewes	DE	1655	Residential	One of the houses structures in Delaware.
Newman-Fiske-Dodge House		Wenham	MA	1658	Residential	Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Old Halsey House		Southampton	NY	1660	Residential	Built by Thomas Halsey, an English pioneer, the house is now a museum.
Thomas Lee House		East Lyme	CT	1660–4	Residential	One of the oldest wood frame houses in Connecticut still in its primitive state.
James Blake House		Boston	MA	1661 c.	Residential	Oldest house in the city of Boston.
John Bowne House		Flushing, Queens	NY	1661 c.	Residential	Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Reverend James Keith Parsonage		West Bridgewater	MA	1662	Residential	Preserved and maintained by the Old Bridgewater Historical Society.
Bray House		Kittery Point	ME	1662 c.	Residential	Oldest house in Maine.
Bronck House		Coxsackie	NY	1663	Residential	Oldest house in upstate New York.
Richard Jackson House		Portsmouth	NH	1664	Residential	Oldest house in New Hampshire.
Pickman House		Salem	MA	1664	Residential	Located on Charter Street behind the Peabody Essex Museum, the oldest continually operated museum in America. The house abuts the Witch Memorial and is also next to the second oldest burying ground in America. The house is private, owned by the Peabody Essex Museum and not open for tours.
Gedney House		Salem	MA	1665	Residential	Allegedly the second oldest house in the City of Salem, located in the Chestnut Street District and operated as a non-profit museum by Historic New England. The house is rarely open to the public, though private tours can be arranged.
Bacon's Castle		Surry	VA	1665	Residential	Oldest building with satisfactorily credible age authentication and in reasonably decent or better condition (i.e., not a ruin) still standing in the Commonwealth of Virginia; also possibly the oldest brick building still standing in the United States.
Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House		Staten Island	NY	1665 c.	Residential	Built by Pierre Billiou, a French Heugenot pioneer, the house is now a museum.
Alexander Standish House		Duxbury	MA	1666	Residential	Home of the son of Pilgrim Capt. Miles Standish.
Jabez Howland House		Plymouth	MA	1667	Residential	Only extant house in Plymouth occupied by Pilgrims. John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilley Howland, who both came over on the Mayflower, spent their winters here with their son, Jabez, one of their 10 children. Also a National Historic Landmark.
House of the Seven Gables		Salem	MA	1668	Residential	National Historic Landmark, setting of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel.
Chaplin-Clarke House		Rowley	MA	1670	Residential	Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
Stanton-Davis Homestead Museum		Stonington	CT	1670–1700	Farmhouse	The farm has been worked every year since 1654.
Ephraim Hawley House		Trumbull	CT	1670–90	Residential	Oldest house in the historic area of Nichols.
Newport Tower		Newport	RI	1670 c. (disputed to be older)	Commercial	Colonial windmill. No roof or floors since the mid-18th century.
Nehemiah Royce House		Wallingford	CT	1672	Residential	A typical saltbox, this house was visited by George Washington in 1775.
Castillo de San Marcos		St. Augustine	FL	1672–95	Government	Oldest masonry fortification in the United States.
White Horse Tavern		Newport	RI	1673	Tavern	Oldest tavern in America.
Narbonne House		Salem	MA	1675	Residential	On the Waterfront in Salem and owned by the National Park Service.
Conference House		Staten Island	NY	1675 c.	Residential	Only pre-Revolutionary manor house still surviving in New York City.
Hoxie House		Sandwich	MA	1675 c.	Residential	One of the oldest houses on Cape Cod.
The Witch House		Salem	MA	1675	Residential	Also called the Jonathan Corwin House, this was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin and is the only structure still standing in Salem, Massachusetts with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692. Even though Jonathan Corwin's descendants claim the house was built in 1642, most historians now believe the house was built c.1675. The house, located in the Chestnut Street District, is now a museum operated by the City of Salem and is open seasonally.
Harlow Old Fort House		Plymouth	MA	1677	Residential	Built in 1677 by Sergeant William Harlow, using timbers from the Pilgrims' original fort on Burial Hill.
Edward Searle House		Cranston	RI	1677	Residential	The house was rebuilt in 1677 on the site of the original 1670 structure, destroyed by Native Americans during King Philip's War.
John Whipple House		Ipswich	MA	1677	Residential	In 2005 a dendrochronology test determined that the earliest surviving part of the house was actually built in 1677. A major addition of roughly equal size was built in 1690, and there are various later additions.
Smith's Castle		Wickford	RI	1678	Residential	One of the oldest houses in Rhode Island, now a museum.
Rebecca Nurse Homestead	File:RebeccaNurseHouse.jpg	Danvers	MA	1678 c.	Residential	Rebecca Nurse, executed in the Salem witch trials of 1692, was the most notable resident.
Clement Weaver House		East Greenwich	RI	1679	Residential	Oldest privately owned house in Rhode Island.
John Balch House		Beverly	MA	1679 c.	Residential	John Balch received the deed to the land on which the house sits in 1635; the building was constructed by Balch's son and grandson in 1678/1679, and is one of the oldest continuously privately deeded properties in the United States. The original structure in the front dates to 1679, while the back half addition is dated to 1721; these data have been verified using dendrochronology.
Peak House		Medfield, Massachusetts	MA	1680	Residential	One of the earliest surviving examples of Post-medieval English (Elizabethan) architecture in the United States. Was originally built in 1651 but was reconstructed after it was burned down during King Philip's War.
Paul Revere House		Boston	MA	1680 c.	Residential	Oldest building in downtown Boston.
William Penn Guest House		New Castle	DE	1680 c.	Residential	Oldest buildings in New Castle. Purportedly where William Penn lodged after first arrival in America.
Old Ship Church		Hingham	MA	1681	Religious	Oldest church in continuous ecclesiastical use in the United States; only remaining 17th century Puritan meeting house in America.
St. Luke's Church		Smithfield	VA	1682	Religious	Recent dendrochronology studies confirm the 1682 date of this National Historic Landmark.
Wall House		Cheltenham Township	PA	1682	Residential	Possibly the oldest stone house in Pennsylvania. Built for Richard Wall, the founder of Cheltenham Township.
Third Haven Meeting House		Talbot County	MD	1682	Religious	One of the oldest buildings in Maryland. Oldest Quaker meeting house in the United States.
Parson Capen House		Topsfield	MA	1683	Residential	The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. The Topsfield Historical Society currently operates it as a historic house museum.
Caleb Pusey House		Upland	PA	1683	Residential	Only extant building known to have been visited by William Penn. Completed in 1696.
Old Indian Meeting House		Mashpee	MA	1684	Religious	Oldest Native American church.
John Ward House		Salem	MA	1684	Residential	The John Ward House is a National Historic Landmark at 132 Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts, located in the Downtown Salem District and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.
Samuel Davis House		Littleton	MA	1685	Residential	Privately owned.
Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow		Sleepy Hollow	NY	1685	Religious	Oldest church in the State of New York.
Jethro Coffin House		Nantucket	MA	1686	Residential	Oldest house on Nantucket. It was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.
William Murray House		Salem	MA	1688	Residential	A historic house at 39 Essex Street.
Wilbor House		Little Compton	RI	1690	Residential	Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, the house serves as the headquarters of the Little Compton Historical Society.
Acadian House		Guilford	CT	1690 c.	Residential	The house gets its name after the Acadians who resided there following the 1755 Great Expulsion.
Farmar Mill		Fort Washington	PA	1690 c.	Mill	Oldest surviving mill in Pennsylvania.
Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm		Newbury	MA	1690 c.	Residential	One of the oldest stone buildings in New England, now a nonprofit museum.
Hyland-Wildman House		Guilford	CT	1690–1710 c.	Residential	Open to the public since 1918. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
Old Quaker Meeting House		Flushing, Queens	NY	1694	Religious	The only surviving example in New York State of a typical 17th century ecclesiastical frame structure of medieval design.
Pink House		Charleston	SC	1694–1712	Residential	Built by John Breton in the city's French Quarter, the house is one of the oldest buildings in South Carolina and the oldest building in Charleston.
Wren Building		Williamsburg	VA	1695	School	Oldest school building in America, original The College of William & Mary structure.
Merion Friends Meeting House		Merion Station	PA	1695	Religious	One of the oldest Quaker meeting houses in America.
Holy Trinity Church		Wilmington	DE	1698–9	Religious	Oldest Swedish church in the United States. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Great Friends Meeting House		Newport	RI	1699	Religious	Expanded in 1730, 1807, 1857, and 1867 to accommodate the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends.
Hoyt-Barnum House		Stamford	CT	1699 c.	Residential	The builder was a descendant of one of the original founders of Stamford. The structure is owned and maintained as a museum by the Stamford Historical Society.
Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church		Philadelphia	PA	1700	Religious	Oldest surviving church in Philadelphia.
Edward Morgan Log House		Towamencin	PA	1700	Residential	Home to the maternal grandfather of Daniel Boone.
Buttolph-Williams House		Wethersfield	CT	1711	Residential	One of the oldest surviving homes in Wethersfield, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1968.
The Powder Magazine		Charleston	SC	1713	Government	Oldest public building in South Carolina. The Powder Magazine Museum.
Old State House		Boston	MA	1713	Government	Oldest surviving public building in Boston. The Bostonian Society Museum.
Perth Amboy City Hall		Perth Amboy	NJ	1714–7	Government	Oldest city hall in USA.
Massachusetts Hall		Cambridge	MA	1718–20	School	Oldest extant building at Harvard University.
Garretson Forge and Farm		Fair Lawn	NJ	1720	Residential	One of the oldest homes in Bergen County, New Jersey.
Wayside Cottage		Scarsdale	NY	1720 c.	Residential	One of the oldest houses in Westchester County, NY. Owned and operated by the Junior League of Central Westchester.
Gonzalez-Alvarez House		St. Augustine	FL	1723 c.	Residential	Oldest house in St. Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the continental United States.
Alamo Mission Long Barracks		San Antonio	TX	1724 c.	Religious	The Alamo Chapel and Priests quarters and convent (Long Barracks) in San Antonio. In the center of the surrounding area are the remains of the "Long Barracks" which were constructed 20 years before the Chapel. Founded in 1718 and moved to present site 1724.
Reuben Brown House		Concord	MA	1725	Residential	Built in 1725 by the town saddler, Reuben Brown. There is also a strong tradition that the house was the home of Peter Bulkeley, which is why the house is often referred to as the Peter Bulkeley / Reuben Brown House. The evidence is still unclear whether or not the Bulkeleys did build the house some 300 years ago. What historians can conclude, however, is that the house was either completely updated or built by Reuben Brown in 1725, since most of the house's present features are typical of houses from 1700 to 1730.
Fort Niagara		Youngstown	NY	1726	Fortification	Built in 1726 by the French as a "house of peace". Taken by the British in 1759, the fledgling United States regained control by treaty in 1796. It was lost to the British in 1813, but was relinquished as a result of the Treaty of Ghent, and has remained in the hands of the United States ever since.
Findowrie		Albemarle County	VA	1730	Residential	Oldest unaltered residence in Virginia.
Ephrata Cloister		Lancaster County	PA	1732	Religious	Last surviving resident of the Ephrata Cloister religious community died on July 27, 2008, at the age of 98.
Oxford Furnace	File:Oxford Furnace.jpg	Oxford Township	NJ	1741	Furnace	First hot blast furnace in the United States.
Fort Matanzas		St. Johns County	FL	1740–2	Presidio	Designated a United States National Monument on October 15, 1924.
Old Ursuline Convent		New Orleans	LA	1748 (or 1752)	Religious	Considered the oldest building in Louisiana.
Presidio La Bahía		Goliad	TX	1749	Presidio	The best preserved Spanish presidio in the United States.
Mount Holly Firehouse		Mount Holly	NJ	1752	Firehouse	Oldest firehouse in the USA, established by what is now the oldest continuously operating volunteer fire department in the USA.
Fort de Chartres Powder Magazine		Prairie du Rocher	IL	1753–1756	Government	Oldest building in Illinois.
Proprietary House		Perth Amboy	NJ	1762	Government	Oldest remaining colonial proprietary governor's residence in the original Thirteen States.
Touro Synagogue		Newport	RI	1763	Religious	Oldest synagogue building in the United States.
Fort Pitt Blockhouse		Pittsburgh	PA	1764	Government	Oldest structure in Pittsburgh. One of the oldest colonial structures west of the Allegheny mountains.
Sandy Hook Light		Sandy Hook	NJ	1764	Lighthouse	Oldest original lighthouse in USA.
Maryland State House		Annapolis	MD	1772	Government	Oldest state house in continuous use in the United States.
Mission San Juan Capistrano		San Juan Capistrano	CA	1776	Mission	Oldest surviving building in California.
Joel Eddins House		Huntsville	AL	1808	Residential	Possibly the oldest surviving building in Alabama.
Burlington County Prison		Mount Holly	NJ	1811	Prison	Possibly oldest prison building, which operated from 1811 to 1965.
Cataldo Mission		Cataldo	ID	1848	Mission	Oldest standing building in Idaho.
Louisville Water Tower		Louisville	KY	1856	Public Utility	Oldest ornamental water tower in the world.
Fort Misery		Prescott	AZ	1865 c.	Cabin/Fort

See also

• List of the oldest buildings in Alabama
• List of the oldest buildings in Connecticut
• List of the oldest buildings in Delaware
• List of the oldest buildings in Florida
• List of the oldest buildings in Georgia
• List of the oldest buildings in Maryland
• List of the oldest buildings in Massachusetts
• List of the oldest buildings in New Jersey
• List of the oldest buildings in New York
• List of the oldest buildings in North Carolina
• List of the oldest buildings in Pennsylvania
• List of the oldest buildings in Rhode Island
• List of the oldest buildings in South Carolina
• List of the oldest buildings in Virginia
• List of the oldest buildings in the world
• List of burial mounds in the United States
• Oldest churches in the United States
• Oldest synagogues in the United States

External links

• International Architecture database