In reply to Jim.

You can tell a lot from the type of lumber used, how the nails were made, framing style, how the brick and block were made, where the stone was quarried, even the type of mortar. I know of buildings built with mineral salt mortar, they gathered the salt that seeped out of the native bedrock, mixed it with ground shale and powdered limestone, burnt it in piles and used it to hold homemade clay bricks together. Those houses date to the 1800-1840 period. The contact surface in the mortar joints feels like mud but if you pick a little away it is solid underneath.