National Register of Historic Places listings in Central Chicago

The combined area is bounded by Lake Michigan on the east, the Chicago River on the west, North Avenue (1600 N.) on the north, and 26th Street (2600 S.) on the south.

Download coordinates as: The Chicago central city area includes many early classic skyscrapers of the Chicago School of Architecture, such as Burnham and Root's Monadnock and the Reliance Buildings, as well as buildings from the early Modernist period, such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's IBM Building and 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments.

Chicago's earliest surviving building, the Henry B. Clarke House (built c. 1836) is on the Near South Side, close to the Prairie Avenue District of residential Chicago architecture.

Though Frank Lloyd Wright worked downtown first as an assistant to Sullivan (including work on the Auditorium and James Charnley House) and then in his own firm - his major remaining work in the central city is represented only by his well regarded renovation of the lobby of the Root and Burnham's Rookery Building.

At least three sites relate to the city's role in nationwide retailing.