Mary--architectural historians should be able to provide some references to
histories of building materials.  Herschel Shepard at the University of
Florida College of Architecture used to teach a course which covered this
sort of thing, including concrete.  My somewhat foggy memory of the course
is that concrete was used extensively by the Romans, then basically
disappeared until the 19th century.  In the south, tabby is an early form of
concrete and was pretty prevalent in the early 19th century--with a little
earlier in Spanish-held areas.

                        Good luck--Lucy Wayne