The oldest standing building on Chicago’s individual-landmark register is the Noble-Seymour-Crippen House in Norwood Park, with a recorded construction year of 1833 — three years earlier than the Henry B Clarke House (1836). Those two lead the twelve oldest buildings below, a list that runs through a four-way tie at 1869. The scope matters: these are the oldest construction dates on the city’s register of 412 individually designated landmarks as retrieved August 9, 2026 — not a census of every old building in Chicago. Two kinds of register entries are kept out of the ranking and listed after it: seven commemorative “site of” entries, whose dates reach back to 1803 at the site of Fort Dearborn but whose structures are gone or were never buildings, and one 1838 stone boundary marker, which is not a building. Our full analysis of the register covers the designation pace by era, the geography, and every caveat. These are records of designation, and this page takes no position on where anyone should live or invest.
1. Noble-Seymour-Crippen House — 1833
Noble-Seymour-Crippen House, 5624 N Newark Av, in Norwood Park: the register records the construction date “1833” and a 1988 landmark designation. No standing building in the register carries an earlier year.
2. Henry B Clarke House — 1836
Henry B Clarke House, 1855 S Indiana Av, in the Near South Side: the register records the construction date “1836” and a 1970 landmark designation. The register’s first year of designations.
3. John Wingert House — 1854
John Wingert House, 6231 N Canfield Av, in Norwood Park: the register records the construction date “1854” and a 1990 landmark designation. The second Norwood Park house among this list’s oldest four.
4. Jane Addams’ Hull House and Dining Hall — 1856
Jane Addams’ Hull House and Dining Hall, 800 S Halsted St, in the Near West Side: the register records the construction date “1856” and a 1974 landmark designation. Tied at 1856 with the Gray House.
5. John and Phebe Gray House — 1856
John and Phebe Gray House, 4362 W. Grace St., in Irving Park: the register records the construction date “1856” and a 2024 landmark designation. Tied at 1856 — and designated in 2024, the newest designation on this list.
6. Charles D. Iglehart House — 1857
Charles D. Iglehart House, 11118 S Artesian Av, in Morgan Park: the register records the construction date “1857” and a 1994 landmark designation.
7. Rosehill Cemetery Entrance — 1864
Rosehill Cemetery Entrance, 5800 N Ravenswood Av, in Lincoln Square: the register records the construction date “1864” and a 1980 landmark designation. Tied at 1864 with the Soldiers’ Home. The landmark is the entrance structure itself, and the city’s boundary polygons place its footprint in Lincoln Square; the cemetery grounds behind it lie along the Lincoln Square–West Ridge boundary.
8. Soldiers’ Home — 1864
Soldiers’ Home, 739 E 35th St, in Oakland: the register records the construction date “1864-1923” and a 1996 landmark designation. Tied at 1864; its date text, “1864-1923,” ranks by its first year, per the method note.
9. Abraham Groesbeck House — 1869
Abraham Groesbeck House, 1304 W Washington Blvd, in the Near West Side: the register records the construction date “1869” and a 1993 landmark designation. The first of four entries tied at 1869 — and four of this list’s twelve stand on the Near West Side.
10. First Baptist Congregational Church — 1869
First Baptist Congregational Church, 60 N Ashland Av, in the Near West Side: the register records the construction date “1869-71” and a 1982 landmark designation. Tied at 1869; its date text reads “1869-71.”
11. Seth Warner House — 1869
Seth Warner House, 631 N Central Ave, in Austin: the register records the construction date “1869” and a 2022 landmark designation. Tied at 1869.
12. St Ignatius College Prep Building — 1869
St Ignatius College Prep Building, 1076 W Roosevelt Rd, in the Near West Side: the register records the construction date “1869” and a 1987 landmark designation. Tied at 1869.
The sites and the marker, kept apart
Seven register entries are named “Site of…” — commemorations of places rather than standing buildings — and they carry the register’s very earliest dates: the site of Fort Dearborn (1803) and the site of the Sauganash Hotel/Wigwam (1831) among them. They sit outside the ranked list for the same reason the opening gives: the structures are gone or were never buildings. So does one more non-building entry — the Illinois-Indiana State Line Boundary Marker, a stone marker the register carries with an 1838 date and a 2002 designation. All are part of the register all the same.
Questions these numbers can answer
What is the oldest building on Chicago’s landmark register? The Noble-Seymour-Crippen House at 5624 N Newark Avenue in Norwood Park, with a recorded construction year of 1833; it was designated in 1988. The register’s earliest date overall, 1803, belongs to the site of Fort Dearborn — a commemorative site, not a standing building.
How old is the Clarke House? The register records the Henry B Clarke House at 1855 S Indiana Avenue as built in 1836. It was designated in 1970, the register’s first year of designations.
How are these construction dates determined? They are the register’s own free-text construction dates, read as each entry’s first four-digit year — so a phased entry like the Soldiers’ Home (“1864-1923”) ranks by its start. The register, not this page, is the source of every date, and 410 of its 412 entries carry a readable one.
Where these numbers come from
City of Chicago Individual Landmarks dataset (uct4-hrvh), retrieved August 9, 2026 — 412 individually designated landmarks, ranked here by the first four-digit year in each entry’s free-text construction-date field, standing entries only. Chicago’s landmark districts are a separate register that protects many more buildings and is not counted here. The designation pace by mayoral era, the map of all 77 community areas, and the full method: Chicago Has 412 Individual Landmarks. More Than Half Were Designated Under One Mayor.
Computed by KCM Desk from records current to August 9, 2026. If you spot an error, corrections come first.