Been there.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from reading Language Log it’s that most of this stuff goes a lot further back then you’d assume. Like maybe there’s this slightly ungrammatical sounding slang phrase that seems like it was probably invented by kids in California circa AD 1982, but then it turns out there are examples of similar constructions in the writings of Ælfric of Eynsham circa AD 982 or something.
If it helps, I think the progressive passive specifically is more recent (e.g., “A house is being built on 4th street”), having come into fashion within just the last two or three hundred years, and more or less killing off an earlier construction called the ‘passival’ (which would be e.g., “A house is building…”, and does indeed sound a bit odd to my ears).
That’s only a small part of what people label ‘passive’ though, and I still wouldn’t bet on not being able to find examples from 1600 or whatever.
