Te Awamutu library hosted historian Alan Hall on Wednesday night as he educated members of the community about local heritage buildings.
Alan's talk was titled New Wine in Old Bottles and explored the early development of Te Awamutu, using stories about some of the older commercial buildings still standing.
In 2017, the Te Awamutu Genealogy group began investigating the history of Te Awamutu's commercial buildings for their Building Social History project.
"What's really occurred to me is that buildings are just shells and over time they are modified, they are adapted and there are different activities that go on in them. Some of the buildings have had some quite big changes to them and sometimes the business now has nothing to do with what the place was built for," said Alan.
"I regard them as being like bottles, where the contents are changed along the way. Hence, New Wine in Old Bottles."