There *are* a house in New Orleans. Why "are"? Where many poor boys to destruction *has* gone. Why "has"?

(Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Rising_Sun#Origin):

"House of Rising Sun" was said to have been known by miners in 1905.[6] The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925, in a column "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" in Adventure magazine.[9] The lyrics of that version begin:[9][10]

There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun

It's been the ruin of many poor girl

Great God, and I for one.

The version in your recording is intentionally rendered "illiterate", to sound more "country", and possibly to hint at an African-American origin.