Rhysius Cambrensis | 19 Jul 2014 1:23 p.m. PST |
As Warwick castle celebrates it's 1100th anniversary, I was wondering what the oldest, still functioning buildings are in the world. For example what is the oldest, still functioning building in America? Or Canada? Or Australia? Places in the 'new world'. Rhys |
legatushedlius | 19 Jul 2014 1:28 p.m. PST |
The Pantheon in Rome (117AD) always impressed me when I visited it. |
Sundance | 19 Jul 2014 2:36 p.m. PST |
No far from me is a bed and breakfast, Jean Bonnet's Tavern, that has been in continuous operation as an inn since the 1750s or so. I know there are older buildings that than in use in the US, though. |
tberry7403 | 19 Jul 2014 2:52 p.m. PST |
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Last Hussar | 19 Jul 2014 2:56 p.m. PST |
"In continuous use since 1750." How quaint… My local link Look here link I'm not sure the Pantheon and Pyramids count as still being in use. Tombs, especially, are pretty much one shot *Grin* |
Jamesonsafari | 19 Jul 2014 3:01 p.m. PST |
Couple of taverns even older than that. DAting back to the 12th century at least. Google "Oldest Pub in Britain" and there's one that might have been opened in 750! (But they can only prove it being open back to 1100) |
Rhysius Cambrensis | 19 Jul 2014 3:37 p.m. PST |
Ha I have visited the Ferryboat at St Ives on a few occasions – this in the second link provided by Last Hussar. |
Rebelyell2006 | 19 Jul 2014 3:41 p.m. PST |
The Wren Building of Williamsburg, Virginia (original class building for the College of William and Mary) dates back to the 1690s. But for the most part the oldest still-standing Western structures in America are the churches, including the various Spanish missions in the USA and the rest of North America, along with houses dating to the 1640s. Many of the churches and a few of the houses are still in use as active parishes and homes, while the rest have been turned into museums. The Wren Building is still used for classrooms. Structures from the Native civilizations still stand, although they haven't been used for their original purposes in centuries, especially the pyramids of Central America. But how do we really decide if something is still standing? Most or all of those homes and churches have received additions or structural changes since construction. The Wren Building burned multiple times, leaving brick walls and little else. So are they really the same? |
Skeets | 19 Jul 2014 4:24 p.m. PST |
Across town there is an old farm house dating back to the 1600's. In fact, the original owner was one of the first accusers of a witch in the Salem witch trials. |
Cold Steel | 19 Jul 2014 4:35 p.m. PST |
My parents used to own a large farm house in southeast PA. It was one of those where each generation added an addition. The part of the house traditionally called "the new wing" had a 1738 date stone in the chimney. Granted, that is relatively new by European standards, but at that time, the house was on the other side of the frontier. The area was not even mapped until 1749. |
kreoseus2 | 19 Jul 2014 5:42 p.m. PST |
I live down the road from newgrange, some of the original owners are still there. There was a cutlers in town that was 400 years old but it closed down a few years ago. |
etotheipi | 19 Jul 2014 7:03 p.m. PST |
Probably Pueblo Taos … 1000AD or a bit earlier, although there are a number or much older burial mounds which are still standing, functioning, and "inhabited" continuously since being built. :) |
Martin Rapier | 19 Jul 2014 11:59 p.m. PST |
For the benefit of our US cousins, I would like to point out that we don't all live seventeenth century timber framed buildings over here, whilst there are indeed a few very old buildings (hardly surprising) the vast bulk of the building stock is nineteenth century or much later. |
Cold Steel | 20 Jul 2014 6:14 a.m. PST |
For the benefit of our European cousins, I would like to point out that some of us Yanks have actually crossed the Atlantic in the other direction. In a discussion about the oldest still functioning buildings, late 17th and early 18th century is the oldest European-style structure you can find in the New World. That is pretty new compared to Warwick Castle or Rothenburg ob der Taubor (my favorite city in the world), or some of the buildings extant from the Roman Empire. To find something older than late 17th century in North America, you have to look at the indigenous populations, like the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, still occupied for around 2,000 years. |
Glengarry5 | 20 Jul 2014 12:55 p.m. PST |
I live in Vancouver on Canada's West Coast. As cartoonist Bill Griffith has said of the city "anything built before 1963 is a heritage monument". |
TelesticWarrior | 21 Jul 2014 2:47 a.m. PST |
The oldest site that we now know about is in Turkey, an ancient temple-complex that is at least 11,000 years old. link Its not inhabited today, but I thought you like to know that the established view of history is currently being over-turned due to the emergence of sites like Gobekli Tepe. |
Windy Miller | 25 Jul 2014 2:30 a.m. PST |
Diocletian's Palace in Split, Croatia is probably one of the oldest continuously occupied buildings in the world. It was built for the Emperor's retirement in 305AD. |
myrm11 | 25 Jul 2014 6:17 a.m. PST |
The Oldest parts of the Tower of London are Norman and the building has been in continuous use by the same body (the Crown). All the colleges in Cambridge that are really old have some or indeed significant parts of their original buildings by the original entity – so that's 1200s – Oxford University the same applies and as they are older, they can go slightly further back in time. If I remember correctly Dover Castle has a 1st Century Roman Lighthouse element in its construction so there is a continuous building there for 2000years – though use has changed and the part that is that old is a small element – so its not as if its the same use. Are we counting such constructions? Having just got back from Angkor Wat – there and some other temples nearby have never been abandoned and are still used from the 10-12th Century. Hagia Sophia is 500s and has been in continuous use though different purposes – Im guessing there's churches in Rome/Vatican that fit……a google later and both the Pantheon from 117 and Santa Sabina from 422 claim continuous use (with the church been the same body and the same purpose for the entire time). |