The thing that kills both types is neglect, more than anything else. You could certainly pass a stripper on to your grandchildren if you take care of it, and, if needed, you can repair it quite nicely if you know how and have the skills (which most folks who have already built a nice one already have). The place folks get into trouble with strippers is buying beat up, weathered and neglected boats and thinking they're going to make them all better. They aren't - and they're wasting their time and money trying to do so. On the other hand, being wood canvas certainly doesn't guarantee that you can pass a canoe on if you don't take care of it either - at least not one in good condition. As for "appearing new" after 100 years, I think I'd go with "beautifully restored" instead. In most cases, I believe it's more accurate.
Best bet to start with would be to clarify the 17' Old Town you are interested in. As far as I know, Old Town never commercially produced wood/fiberglass strippers. They did sell kits for them for a short time (late '70s or early '80s). They were not great boats and the prototypes I saw were very crude.