Yes, we can’t even talk about ■■■■■ carpenters or drunken driving on these forums. What the ?
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Many of them are in Salem MA. When I first moved here 24 years ago, I was looking at homes in and around the Salem area. I found out pretty quick how many of them were originally colonial era homes. Some had fireplaces you could stand in. Converted to electric heat with meters spinning fast enough to saw wood. Some only had one electrical outlet per room and it was above the entrance door. When the realtor said- this one was built in '76 you had to ask…16, 17, 18, 19 ??? 
I had to expand my search area…
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A lot of them are standing now because people took steps to update and preserve them. The only homes I know that were built before the 1700’s that are still around is because previous owners or a preservation group stepped up to preserve the home.
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Here is an example of a Colonial Era(1700s) house in Stamford CT. In this photo the home was still in its downtown location, adjacent to the police headquarters that would be rebuilt where this house is shown:
At the time of construction, this would have been rural countryside!
It was dismantled, with individual pieces carefully numbered and catalogued, with appropriate descriptions, and meticulously rebuilt in North Stamford, on the grounds and parking lot of the Historical Society, which by the way were the catalysts for rescuing the structure from certain demolition.
Interesting note: For a while, it served as the law offices of my parents’ personal lawyer.
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Like I said, nothing was level and it was more than a few inches off the ground (maybe 18"-24"), defiantly not livable for a very long time, and probably not very safe, but it seemed sturdy enough to snoop around in… Last time I saw it was probably 29 years ago…
The same as any building. They all need consistent upkeep or they return to dust.
Ah, but I only know of one house that had a TV show.
That’s true. And that’s why there are very few homes standing from that time period. Modern home builders learned from past mistakes and have techniques and building materials that allow you to stretch those maintenance items. Things like Pressure treated sill plates, poured concrete or cinder block foundations that are at least 18" above grade - just to name a couple.
That and the cost to update to modern standards or comfort levels is cost prohibitive. It was often cheaper to raze the existing structure and rebuild with modern materials and techniques than to try and renovate. Most of the remaining antique structures are in historic districts with rules and regulations about what you can change.
Many if not most were not even worth updating. There are some that are still standing that are NOT historical. Just a home that was passed down from generation to generation. Not for me.
You don’t have to go to Salem, MA, in order to find that phenomenon. The last apartment my parents rented–prior to buying their own home–was in a building that was built circa 1900, and you could still see the capped gas light connections in some of the rooms. It had been “converted” to electricity sometime in the 1920s or 1930s, but each room had only one outlet. At the age of 13, I became quite proficient at installing new outlets, but because the entire apartment was on one 15 amp circuit, you couldn’t use more than a few of the outlets simultaneously.
Moving into a new home–with central A/C and with a lot of outlets, was really nice.
I missed the “other state” in your post. Of course there were houses built in the 1600s in North America, but much closer to the ocean than what is now Tennessee. The reason I doubt any structure in Middle Tennessee was built that long ago is that some of my family came to South Carolina in the early to middle 1700s, and many eventually lived in the northwest part of the state. Until the late 1700s, it was Indian territory and settlers were taking a big risk with their lives by claiming land there. Since middle Tennessee is much farther west, it seems logical that anyone trying to take land from the locals would have been chased off, if they were lucky.
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I doubt whoever built it even stayed there for very long (could have been run off once found?) as like I said there was no water supply, only when it rained… It was just a large one room cabin with another room (kitchen) behind it with an open porch like thing between them, so possibly a loner or someone(s) running/hiding from something or another, and before they built the city it was in, nothing around for miles, just in the middle of nowhere, who knows, but it was much older than anything we had ever seen, and we do have some late 1700’s stuff around here, and about the same time one of the old homes (1787, a few miles from my house) that was condemned, now restored and open to the public, was built way different then that old house was… Last time any of us saw it was about 29 years ago, so don’t even know if it is still standing or not, but if left alone, probably is, but the land hasn’t been developed or anything yet, and not really much you can do with the area the way it is, would be crazy expensive to build anything at it’s location…
Anyway, remember that I never said it was built in the 1600’s, I said it was estimated to have been built in the 1700’s, I also just said that it looked similar to the one I posted that was built in the mid 1600’s, some of y’all just took it out of context, got a little sideways with it and ran with it, and I just posted about houses from the 1600’s… Again, nowhere did I ever say it was built in the 1600’s…
It had been estimated to have been built about 250 year ago in the 1980’s, so if you take 29 years (last time I saw it) plus another 250 years from today, that puts the estimated time frame of being built smack in the middle ish of the 1700’s, about 1747 give or take a few decades… So my original time frame of being built in the 1700’s is completely doable and realistic…
Like I have said many times in the past, don’t (always) overthink things… lol