# Oldest business in your area? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535 "2020-03-28T20:54:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/1 "2020-03-28T20:54:03Z")
Looking for a place that has never shut down but might have changed names or merged. I live a mile from Oxford University press office. Founded in 1586. It’s an office with a warehouse which I think might be their only US warehouse. [Oxford University Press - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_University_Press) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/2 "2020-03-28T21:06:01Z")
My town has the U.S. Navy. While they’ve only been here 100 years or so, they’ve been around since 1775. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/3 "2020-03-28T21:36:13Z")
The [Folsom Hotel](https://folsomhotel.net/pages/history) claims to have been in business since 1885, so without doing extensive research I’m going to guess that’s the oldest. It’s no longer operating as an actual hotel, however. Now it’s a bar/restaurant. I don’t really think government run institutions count as businesses for the purposes of this thread, but since Procrustus mentioned the Navy I’ll just mention that [Folsom Prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_State_Prison) has been here since 1880. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/4 "2020-03-28T21:44:00Z")
We have a place called[Laird’s](https://lairdandcompany.com/our-history/), it was founded in 1717 and may be the oldest Distillery in the US. They claim it is the oldest and it appears the claim is legit. For the US, this is a very old establishment. I know by European standards not so much. Established the same year and next to it is [The Colts Neck Inn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colts_Neck_Inn). Started as the Colts Neck Tavern and I believe part of the Tavern is still there. The Distillery burnt around 1849 and moved maybe 2 miles to its current location. We also have the Navy nearby but that is new by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/5 "2020-03-28T22:09:26Z")
The Los Angeles area has [Ducommun Inc.](http://www.laalmanac.com/economy/ec702.php), started in 1849. Not very old by non-US standards. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/6 "2020-03-28T22:41:03Z")
Thinking about the entire Sacramento area and not just Folsom, I wonder if the oldest business might actually be the railroad, which has been an important part of the region’s economy since the first transcontinental railroad and the founding of the Central Pacific Railroad Company in 1861 (on paper, at least). Although not actually headquartered here anymore – through a series of mergers Central Pacific became Southern Pacific and then Union Pacific, there’s always been some sort of major railroad operation in the area since the tracks were completed. The rail yard in Sacramento closed in the 1980s or 90s IIRC (which I believe was the original terminus of the transcontinental railroad), but in turn the big rail yard in Roseville has been operating since 1906. So it hasn’t always been in the same place, but the railroad has been in the area in some form or another since the 1860s. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/7 "2020-03-28T23:02:39Z")
There is a jewelry store near me that has been in business since 1856, and is run by the same family. Brian ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/8 "2020-03-28T23:25:58Z")
There is a farm very close to my parents’ house that’s been around (and operated by the same family) since the mid-seventeenth century. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/9 "2020-03-28T23:28:26Z")
A tiny convinience store that sits at least 3 miles out of town. Across the street from an equally tiny elementary school, there’s a whole lot nothing surrounding it. It was built in 1860. We’re in very rural southwest Oregon, and this little store is maybe 50 miles from the Pacific coast. > **[The Whimsical Oregon Store That Will Take You Straight Into The Past](https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oregon/lookingglass-store-or/)** > > This quaint little country store is the oldest surviving business in Douglas County. A trip here is sure to take you back to a simpler time. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/10 "2020-03-28T23:47:06Z")
I live in a northern suburb of Houston, and if there’s anything older than about 1970 in my neighborhood, I’m unaware of it. > [@WildaBeast](#): > > Thinking about the entire Sacramento area and not just Folsom, I wonder if the oldest business might actually be the railroad, which has been an important part of the region’s economy since the first transcontinental railroad and the founding of the Central Pacific Railroad Company in 1861 (on paper, at least). OK, so I’ll cheat a bit and claim my sister’s place outside Lancaster, PA, which is just a few miles from Strasburg, home of the oldest continuously operated railroad in the country (chartered 1832). ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/11 "2020-03-28T23:51:17Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I don’t really think government run institutions count as businesses for the purposes of this thread, but since Procrustus mentioned the Navy I’ll just mention that [Folsom Prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folsom_State_Prison) has been here since 1880. In my defense, i should point out that it’s a shipyard. So, a little more of a business than some installations. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/12 "2020-03-28T23:53:01Z")
Really hard to say. Yale isn’t exactly a business, but it’s the biggest employer in New Haven and was founded in 1701. It moved to New Haven from Old Saybrook in 1716. The New Haven hospital was founded in 1833. It’s now the Yale-New Haven hospital. Is that a business? Morys opened in 1849. It’s often associated with Yale, but it is actually an independent private club. Railroads in the area date back to the 1830s running to New York, Hartford, Boston and “all points in between” as they used to say. They were originally businesses. I’m not sure exactly how to classify them now. Louis Lunch always has been a business and it opened in 1895. Still in teh same spot with the same cast iron grill since 1898. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/13 "2020-03-28T23:58:05Z")
Hudson Bay Company. Founded May 2, 1670. Coming up on its 350th anniversary. Local branch is just down the street from where I work. Used to own all the land in North-western Canada, a/k/a Rupertsland. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/14 "2020-03-29T00:54:14Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Thinking about the entire Sacramento area and not just Folsom, I wonder if the oldest business might actually be the railroad, which has been an important part of the region’s economy since the first transcontinental railroad and the founding of the Central Pacific Railroad Company in 1861 (on paper, at least). Although not actually headquartered here anymore – through a series of mergers Central Pacific became Southern Pacific and then Union Pacific, there’s always been some sort of major railroad operation in the area since the tracks were completed. The rail yard in Sacramento closed in the 1980s or 90s IIRC (which I believe was the original terminus of the transcontinental railroad), but in turn the big rail yard in Roseville has been operating since 1906. So it hasn’t always been in the same place, but the railroad has been in the area in some form or another since the 1860s. If you go up the hill a bit to Placerville, the Mountain Democrat (newspaper) has been publishing since 1851, and Placerville Hardware has been in operation on Main street since 1852 (the oldest hardware store west of the Mississippi). ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/15 "2020-03-29T01:29:01Z")
[Birkett Mills, 1797](http://www.thebirkettmills.com/company-aboutus.asp). ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/16 "2020-03-29T01:56:31Z")
The Brown Palace Hotel, in downtown Denver, has been open since 1892. Oh, and the University of Denver was originally founded in 1864 as a seminary school, although it moved to its current location away from downtown decades later. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/17 "2020-03-29T05:31:14Z")
Here in Santa Barbara it’s probably Joe’s Cafe, open since 1928. Strongest drinks in town! I hate to admit it but the locally despised Santa Barbara Newspress had it’s oldest predecessor founded (the weekly Santa Barbara Post) on May 30, 1868. The Newspress itself dates from 1932. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/18 "2020-03-29T06:00:05Z")
Probably the [Panama Canal Railroad,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Railway) which was founded as a company in 1850 and completed the route across the Isthmus in 1855. It has changed hands several times. Originally owned by American interests, then bought by the French in 1881, and bought by the US government in 1904. It was turned over to the Panamanian government in 1979. It was largely defunct by the late 1990s but I don’t think it ever ceased to exist as an enterprise. Since 1998 it has been largely operated by the Kansas City Southern RR. After that it seems to be the [Felix B. Maduro department stores](http://arcoproperties.com/en/century-old-businesses-of-panama/), founded in 1877. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/19 "2020-03-29T06:04:12Z")
The Bigelow House Museum down the street from me has only been a “business” since 1994, but the house itself was built in the late 1850s and is the oldest surviving building in the state of Washington. There are a couple of restaurants and a theater in downtown Olympia that all date to the 1920s, but I’m not aware of anything that’s been continuously open since the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535/20 "2020-03-29T07:03:09Z")
The oldest businesses in the Bay Area, as far as I know, are Tadich Grill and Boudin Bakery, both in San Francisco, and both founded in 1849. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-business-in-your-area/850535.md?page=2)