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Find out more about Benjamin: Seattle native Benjamin Lukoff is a freelance writer and editor. He's been interested in local history since the age of six, when his father bought him 'Pig-Tail Days in Old Seattle' at the MOHAI gift shop. |
To answer that question for Capitol Hill is easy: it's Ward House, originally at 1427 Boren Avenue but now standing at the corner of Denny and Belmont. Built around 1882, it's not only the oldest house on the Hill but the oldest house in the city.
But what about the city's other neighborhoods? I got to thinking about this the other day when reading Jess Cliffe's post at VintageSeattle.org about 1206 Republican — formerly the oldest house in Cascade (1890), now "a pile of old lumber and brick." If the 1114-1124 Republican homes are still there, I assume they inherit the title, having been built in 1900 and 1905.
The Seattle Public Library recently posted on this topic, and says "Another Northwest Index entry dated, November 1984, states that neither the Seattle Office of Urban Conservation, Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, the Seattle Public Library’s History Department, GRA Library nor the Museum of History and Industry Library could identify the oldest building still standing in Seattle. That seems like a fairly definitive statement. At least for now."
That does bring up the question of whether there are any structures in Seattle that are older than its oldest house, but for now Ward House's place seems to be pretty secure. But nobody seems to have an index of the oldest structures in each of Seattle's neighborhoods. Yes, this can be tricky due to the unofficial nature of neighborhood boundaries. And does Ward House qualify as the oldest house on Capitol Hill, since it was originally located on First Hill? What's the oldest building in Seattle that has never moved, I wonder?
All that having been said, we've got to start somewhere. Readers, do you have any candidates? For now, let's say a structure having moved doesn't matter. Then we've got:
Capitol Hill: Ward House
Cascade: 1114-1124 Republican homes
? : ?
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