Maybe that is the answer to the Ship of Theseus question, culture, more than raw materials, is what make it what it is. Same ideas, consciousness, soul, something that runs in our mind, or the mind of enough of others, that at least in some moment made sense, worked, had a lot of people sharing it, and as with aesthetics, we are biased to like, respect or be interested in.

In the same way, the U.S. Navy manages a forest for the sake of the U.S.S. Constitution

https://www.military.com/history/why-us-navy-manages-its-own...

I just saw the anime with this title from the creator of Akira and I’m still emotionally affected a week later. I think it might make a great computer game actually.

I regularly feel this connection to others in the past whenever I look at old photographs of people in a city I'm familiar with, and yes absolutely when I'm in historic buildings of any material. Often I've asked people I know if they experience the same and anecdotally it seems to be very rare or otherwise unusual.