Old house floors

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Deb, for what it's worth, much of the flooring that was originally in mid 1800's houses is basically what we would consider to be subflooring today. Our daughter's 1840 house has sawn 1" planks--3/4" actual measurement--butted together. Her's are pine but local wood types will govern what was used in your area. Tongue and groove edge joints might have been used in very costly houses but were not used much in big old farm houses and less costly urban buildings.

One thing that you might look for, since it was common for the period, is in the original dining room. Hardwood flooring was used in these on the first floor but only around the edges of the room. Carpeting was put in the middle of the room, under the table. That way, it was easier to take the expensive carpet outside to beat it to clean it. And you still got to show off the fact that you could actually afford carpet, but a lot of the dining room also was the hardwood flooring.

By the same type of thinking, if you had hardwood flooring, it would be in the "front parlor" first, then other rooms on the first floor, often with the exception of cooking and family eating areas, finally it would be put on the upper floors.

Henry in MI