You guys have given me all kinds of things to comment upon, which I am now
going to do at excessive length. You'd never know I used to edit a
newsletter in which brevity was the soul of what was I saying? 

Originality: I remember one of my Morgan-owning friends, who also happens
to design museum exhibits for a living (did the Titanic show at Nauticus in
Norfolk a few years ago) comparing my very original (under 20,000-mile)
Morgan with his thrice-restored one. He said, "You can restore it again and
again, but it's only original once." 

Continuity of identity: The reference to the USS Constitution is apt, since
it was in the maritime context I first encountered this idea, which also
applies to antique cars and other artifacts. As Joshua Slocum wrote in his
book Sailing Alone around the World (he was the first to do so), referring
to the boat in which he did this, the Spray, which he rebuilt from a hulk
given him by a friend, a ship retains the same identity regardless of how
much of it is replaced, so long as it is not all replaced at the same time.
As he used a part of the original keel and stem in his boat, it was,
legally, the same boat. So it is with old cars, just like the old
axe--which is how come street rods can be licensed as antique cars, and kit
cars (like the Gazelle) usually use the identity of the donor car for
titling and registration. 

Authenticity: I separate this from originality because a repair or
replacement could be authentic if it exactly resembles the original.
Something original would be authentic; something authentic might not be
original--an "authentic reproduction" though many things so described are
not. The derivation from the root that leads to "author" which not only
means creator but also master (authority), is interesting. 

Integrity: There's personal integrity, that is, trustworthiness, pride in
one's work, honesty, all meaning that a person with this quality would be
desirable to work with. There's structural integrity, that an object will
hold together under the stresses for which it was made. Presumably
artifacts made by a person of integrity are more likely to possess
integrity themselves.  

In the whole originality/authenticity/integrity debate, seems to me there
is an ethical or philosophical issue too. That is, what is the intended
result? If I am restoring an antique car to display in a museum, I want it
to be as authentic as possible, indeed original if available, but its
integrity as a functioning machine is less important. If I intend it to be
driven regularly (as all my cars are) I may make different choices. Which
choices depend on my own taste in cars, the kind of driving intended, the
practical utility of the choice, and how much it may differ from authentic.
I am using cars as an example because I have more direct experience with
them and have been through this process with them, but I think it applies
equally to buildings. I prefer, in a perfect world, to have historical
artifacts be as historically correct as possible. At the same time, if they
have to be used in the modern world, there may be instances in which some
loss of authenticity leads to much greater utility. But each instance will
be different. At one extreme is the hot-rodder who uses almost nothing of
the original car--akin to a facadectomy being called a historic building
restoration. At the other is the museum exhibit which can't be used at all.
In my own car restorations, I keep the basic car authentic, and my rules
for changes are that they must be reversible, invisible or unobtrusive, and
make a marked improvement. Putting a better transmission or an electronic
voltage regulator in my 1965 Ford Mustang was OK because the car was still
essentially the same. Dropping a modern engine into my 1929 Model A Ford
would not have been acceptable because it was too big a change (and indeed
would require so many other changes to keep everything balanced that the
result would no longer be a Model A except in name). When my Morgan needs a
new transmission, I might upgrade from the original 4-speed to a 5-speed.
Also one must sometimes take into consideration whether authentic parts are
available and decide whether a broken but original car is better than a
modified but driveable one. 

AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) has a judging class they call
HPOF for Historic Preservation of Original Features. This came about
because there was concern about cars which still had original paint or
interiors being restored to new condition but at the cost of surviving
examples of the original details. I have seen some original cars that were
so well preserved it was hard to believe they had not been restored. Some
of the HPOF cars, however, are very rough and not really enjoyable except
to look at. So indeed would it have been better to restore them, carefully,
documenting everything and saving as much as possible of the original parts
that were being replaced so they could be preserved and studied? That's the
owner's choice, based on the intended use of the car. I am a little
concerned about wearing out my original Morgan, but I intend to make it
last as long as possible and when it needs rebuilding (in 10 years or so)
to do so with care. I bought it to drive and if I couldn't drive it I would
lose interest in it. 

This applies to buildings too, as I'm sure you are all way ahead of me in
thinking. A house to be lived in has different requirements from a house to
be part of a museum. And so on through the whole adaptive reuse thing,
which often is just another term for gutting everything that made the
building interesting. In my weekend realtor work, I am often seeing old
houses (1920s-30s around here) in which very unfortunate renovation has
been done, or some in which I hope the buyers will realise what is there
and not make a mess of it. But (except maybe in small New England towns)
there aren't any House Police to keep people from ruining their property.
And the most jealously guarded American right is the right to know nothing.
"You have the right to remain ignorant, and anything you know will be held
against you." 

I'd better send this before I really get going.

Don White
Associate Publisher
Preservation Sourcebook