Talk:Rebecca Nurse Homestead

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If the house was built "circa 1700", then how is Rebecca Nurse, who died in 1693, a resident? If she is confirmed to have been a resident of the house, then surely the house can be dated more precisely than "circa 1700". AJD (talk) 06:21, 1 March 2018 (UTC)


 * This house was definitely not the house Nurse lived in, and has been dated to ca. 1700 by Cummings, whose book The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay remains the authoritative source on the subject. This house has no known 17th century features, and is similar to houses proven by dendrochronology to date to 1710 to 1720 Old houses (talk) 20:30, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

The ca. 1700 date is from an architectural historian; only dendrochronology would be a more reliable source.Old houses (talk) 17:09, 10 September 2022 (UTC)


 * Is there a more recent reference with that 1700 date? There must be an expert that's written about this house in the last 20 years.—— Kpop1999 (talk) 06:04, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

I see that the date of the building is in question, but it looks like that 17th century date needs a reliable source more recent than the reliable source from 1979. The source from the 1980s is the same as the source from the 1930; just a reprinted source. So is this house actually 1678, or is it 18th century? Seems like a pretty big difference, and it should be easy to tell. What am I missing here?Kpop1999 (talk) 21:46, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Date change
After looking at the sources, the 1979 source from Cummings is the best available source; Cummings literally wrote the book on pre-1725 houses, and was the Director of what is now Historic New England, the non-profit that owned the house before giving it to the current owners. The current source saying 1678 is actually just a reprint of a 1930s publication, and so could not be considered the best source. If there is a more recent, equally qualified source estimating 1678, please update the citation with that source. Otherwise, the date will be changed to "ca. 1700." Kpop1999 (talk) 22:17, 21 August 2023 (UTC)