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I’m trying to find out the approximate age of our new project house and i was wondering if any of you guys had houses that had similar details that might lead me to narrow down the time frame of construction.
I know from old county survey maps that a structure appeared in the exact location of my house between 1863 and 1872. I don’t know if it was the same house, but here are some of the ways mine was built.
10″ square oak beams as sill plates with some beams timber framed through first floor. (mortise and tennon) Ballon framing otherwise. Circular sawmill cut lumber. Cut nails, not hand made. lumber is dimensionally similar to todays lumber except that a 2×4 for example is 2″ by 3 1/2″, same with floor joists and rafters. studs layed out on 16″ centers. Stone foundation, 1/2 basement full height, 1/2 crawl. Wooden shake roof under all the other layers.
i’m sure additions were made and others removed but these are the details of the main house. We have a painting that shows an outhouse, i’m not sure when rural michigan would’ve switched to indoor plumbing, but i’m sure its much later than 1860’s. Timber framed barn that someone thought the construction techniques aged it around 1880’s. Walnuts and Catalpa trees in yard obviously planted around some house foundation (current one or one in exact place previously) appear to be at least 150 years. 36″ diameters.
Any guesses would be appreciated. What do you think? Thanks for the help,
Kelvin
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How about a picture, architecture is often better to date a building that a narritive description.
Machine cut nails went out of use after the Civil War.
*Local Historical Society? Maybe if they don't know they can point you in the best place.
*Structurally sounds like the house could be 1860's to 1880's, depending on how rural an area it was. Timber framing started to give way to balloon framing sometime after 1850, but in rural Maine where I'm from barns were still timber framed in 1880. Style would tell us as much as structural technique, in the 1800's there were some pretty rapid changes in style that aren't all that hard to follow, with some overlap of course. Unless of course it's been remodeled significantly. Any remaining unique-looking details?MM
*Kelvin, Check your county or town tax records office. They usually keep tabs on property ownership and construction for tax purposes. They may not go back far enough though.walkl gooddavid
*Core the trees and count backwards.
*Kelvin,As mentioned above, your local historical society is a good place to start. They should have plat maps and perhaps some county histories. These multi-volume histories can yeild a lot of information about early settlers. If you have the names of former owners, local churches may also have their vital statistics (births, marriages, deaths,etc) which may help to date the house. Also, check the tax records at the local town hall. They probably won't go back that far but may indicate the approximate age of the house. It sounds like you're in a rural area but in cities gazeteers are useful (sort of a pre-phone phone book) as are painted over-view maps. I live in Ann Arbor and many of the features you describe would apply to my 1880 home. However, those same building techniques could have been used in 1860 or 1900.
*I've looked at local county info. They only record change of ownership and mortgages and there is no mention of construction. The only local histroical society is the town museum which is a glass case in the local middle school. Not a big town. I've talked with the oldest living neighbor (93!) and he remembers who lived there but it was built before he was born. Tax records state it was built in 1910 which everybody believes to be wrong. Here is a link to pictures i have taken of the farm. I don't know if it can be accessed by just anyone, as they say i have to "invite" people, whatever that means. This is the address. Click on album titled "new farm" to view photos of house exterior.http://wwwld-00-01-ae.ecircles.com/magic/products/photo/photo.cgi?circleID=3501115
*Look in your crawl space for any annual plants -- roots still in the ground -- that were killed when the house went up. In your time frame, radiocarbon can give you a date to within months. Lumber won't help there, as it can only give you the year of the particular growth ring, or average of the rings, in the sample. (BTW, growth rings of very old known trees are used to calibrate RC dates.)-- J.S.
*Heres an idea....try census reports to get your home address down to a ten year period.Pete
*Kelvin,You can walk your deed backwards or try old fire insurance maps. Here is one link.http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/sanborn.htmlKK
*My house was built in 1900, and everything you described from yours fits mine too. It is in Ann Arbor. So, your place was probably built sometime after 1850 and before that 93 year old was born!I found out the build date of my place from the city register (what they had before phone books - you had a register with everyone's home address on it, curiously it also listed their occupation, which is good for salesmen!).The register listed addresses on either side of my place in 1899, then mine in 1900 so we figured it got built that year.See if your county has the old city registers stored someplace that you could check (much more useful than old tax records or platt maps or deed searching).best wishes!
*One cousin of mine was renovating a victorian in Denver, and found a schoolbook inside one of the walls!My grandparents owned a building that was once a narrow gage railroad station. Behind the clapboard siding, where we would now use tar paper, the old timers had used newspaper. We were able to carefully peel off large sheets and read the news of the day.You might find something like this after you start your project.
*Same thing happened to me. I was replacing the wooden shingles on the south side of the barn, which was sheathed beneath with two layers of boards. Between the boards was a layer of newspapers from 1864. My barn was built with timbers recycled from a previous building... hand-hewn beams, wooden pegs, etc. At some point the house was renovated and they used nice brass fitings on the windows and doors. All of the interior doorknobs are mercury glass. Old knob insulators in the basement nailed to the beams.
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I'm trying to find out the approximate age of our new project house and i was wondering if any of you guys had houses that had similar details that might lead me to narrow down the time frame of construction.
I know from old county survey maps that a structure appeared in the exact location of my house between 1863 and 1872. I don't know if it was the same house, but here are some of the ways mine was built.
10" square oak beams as sill plates with some beams timber framed through first floor. (mortise and tennon) Ballon framing otherwise. Circular sawmill cut lumber. Cut nails, not hand made. lumber is dimensionally similar to todays lumber except that a 2x4 for example is 2" by 3 1/2", same with floor joists and rafters. studs layed out on 16" centers. Stone foundation, 1/2 basement full height, 1/2 crawl. Wooden shake roof under all the other layers.
i'm sure additions were made and others removed but these are the details of the main house. We have a painting that shows an outhouse, i'm not sure when rural michigan would've switched to indoor plumbing, but i'm sure its much later than 1860's. Timber framed barn that someone thought the construction techniques aged it around 1880's. Walnuts and Catalpa trees in yard obviously planted around some house foundation (current one or one in exact place previously) appear to be at least 150 years. 36" diameters.
Any guesses would be appreciated. What do you think? Thanks for the help,
Kelvin