PRESERVATION: The act or process of applying measures to sustain the existing form, integrity, and material of a building or structure and the existing form and vegative cover of a site. It may include initial stabilization work, where necessary, as well as ongoing maintenacne of the historic building materials and vegetation.

RESTORATION: The act or process of accurately recovering the form and details of a property and its setting as it appeared at the particular period of time by means of the removal of later work or by the replacement of missing earlier work.

REHAIBILITATION: The act or process of returning a property to a state of utility through repair or alteration which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions or features of the property which are significant to its historical, architectural, and cultural values.

Take from “Keeping Time” by William J. Murtagh, Published by John Wiley and Sons, for the Preservation Press, revised edition 1997.

Mr. Murtagh was the first Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, Dept. of the Interior, and has been Vice President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and president of the Victorian Society of America. He Directed the Preservation Program at Columbia University of Maryland and the University of Hawaii.