User talk:Danversite

Nurse House date?
Just wanted to see where you’re coming from on the date of the Nurse House. Nice house, great property, but the reference from the book on pre-1725 houses is more recent than the reference from the ‘30s, and for that reason I think it is the more reliable source, according to Wikipedia policies. Kpop1999 (talk) 18:14, 11 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Of course, thanks for your message. The most recent document cited is from 1987 (Village Architecture), and that states that the house is from 1678. The book on pre-1725 houses (Abbott Cummings Lowell, Framed Houses of MA, 1979) contains only one sentence about the Nurse property, and the author never examined the house, making it unclear what he based his date on. It's hard to date a house if you've never examined the structure.
 * With the most recent source (Village Architecture, 1987) stating 1678, and the most thorough source (the 1930s one, because the scholar did such an in-depth in-person analysis of the structure) stating 1678, that seems to be the established conclusion.
 * Basically, Lowell's 1979 "Framed Houses" is an outlier. Sources both before and after him disagree with his conclusion, which seems not to be based on any evidence. Danversite (talk) 21:52, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your response. Two issues, though: that author did in fact study the house (published in the 1970s- I'll find the details when I get a chance)and was the director of SPNEA, which owned the house before giving to the current owner. Also, the reference you say is from the 1980s is just a reprint of that 1930s publication. I've been to the house, great spot, nice staff, etc. but I think the best source here is from the 1979 book, and there is the other, more detailed source, which should change your position, and I'll edit the article when I find the citation Kpop1999 (talk) 04:39, 16 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The source I've found is brief but detailed, and published by the colonial society of massachusetts. It's available online: it's on the colonial society site as "volume 51: Architecture in Colonial Massachusetts"
 * It says the house was "almost certainly" built after 1700 Kpop1999 (talk) 20:24, 16 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Just a note on witchcraft houses; I'm assuming you have interest in the 1692 hysteria. The Abbot House in Andover, once assumed to be the house the accuser Benjamin Abbot lived in, was proven to be 1711 by tree-ring dating. The author we're talking about here, Cummings, studied that house, too, and thought it was after 1700, and was proven correct. The dating of the house was on a History Detectives episode; worth a viewing Kpop1999 (talk) 23:09, 17 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Ok I will definitely check it out. Maybe someday the Nurse House will have dendrochronology done too. Recently more and more Danvers/Salem area houses have been tested that way. Danversite (talk) 12:35, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
 * I haven't found anything saying the specific reason Cummings says the house is after 1700, but looking at the photos of the house, I see a beaded summer beam, a feature Cummings says is exclusively 1700 to 1730.
 * So, that tells me the Nurse House owners should only get tree-ring dating if they are fully prepared to accept a date of 1720. They do have an incredible property, and there's great potential there even if the Nurse House isn't 1692. They should do archaeology; they'd find objects Rebecca Nurse owned and used Kpop1999 (talk) 18:15, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
 * That is a good point about the risk there. They have indeed done archaeology, with the University of Southern Maine, and have a small exhibit of artifacts. The archaeologist's exhibit notes that from the way the soil is disturbed that the house's cellar was there prior to the 1670s. (But, of course, that leaves open the possibility that the structure was entirely reconstructed on top of the rock cellar walls later on sometime on the same spot). Danversite (talk) 20:36, 18 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah, in terms of the field of architectural history, there is really no doubt this house is 18th century. This house is well documented, so tree-ring dating would be the only way to get this house back to the 17th century, but the details of the house are strongly 18th century. Architectural historians from the 1930s didn't have that knowledge. I think archaeology is the way to go for the Nurse property, and they should look at adding more historic structures that face demolition in the area. Kpop1999 (talk) 17:36, 19 August 2023 (UTC)