The Sexiness of Dating Your House

Friday’s Weekend Journal had an interesting article on the science of dating the age of your house. The process is based on a science called dendrochronology, which involves taking samples from your wood beams, then counting and measures the rings to determine when the wood was harvested. A technique originally used by researchers interested in astronomy and weather patterns, The Journal reports, dendrochronology is catching on now with old-house buffs, primarily architecture-preservation types in the South and Northeast whose homes are among the oldest in the country. But dendrochronologists — earth scientists, historians and others trained in the technique — say the trend has a lot to do with the cachet of owning an antique house. “It’s very sexy to be able to know the exact year your house was built,” says Walter R. Wheeler, an architectural historian in New York. Oh, behave!
This Not-So-Old House [Wall Street Journal]