My home was built in the twenties, we have a finished basement on one half, however the laundry, furnace rough side seems to have a lot of humidity. The floor feels very thin and the center wall may even have some cracks or breaks. There is a hint of wetness as described in all the books. My wife always likes to keep the windows open, but I think this lets in more humidity.
Answer:
About the best I've done with basements like this is to operate a large fan on a 12-hours on/12-hours-off schedule. During the dark the fan is on but during the heat of the day when outside air is more humid than inside air, I close windows and turn the fan off.
