PAPA TE HAPORI PĀNUI• •COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD
DRAWING IN WORDS: NICOLA MARTIN • IMAGERY: PETER DRURY
The beauty of a Thames building has helped to attract a swathe of volunteers to the task of protecting and sharing the area’s rich heritage
There’s a beautiful old building on Queen Street in Thames as you pass KFC and head for the Thames Coast Road. It sits regally alongside a contemporary, architecturally designed addition. The two linked buildings – the Category 2-listed former Carnegie Public Library and a modern, temperature-controlled archive, an award-winning structure in its own right – are known as The Treasury Research Centre and Archive (‘The Treasury’) and are operated by The Coromandel Heritage Trust. The complex shows what a group of determined volunteers who are passionate about heritage can achieve when they put their minds to it. Volunteers worked for more than two decades, firstly to find a home for the research centre, then to
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20 Ngahuru • Autumn 2022
Heritage New Zealand
