The Vallance Cottage working group held an open day at the 1896 mud-brick building yesterday to get ideas from the public regarding the future of the building.
The group last year commissioned a conservation plan which recommended the best way of maintaining the building was for it to have an ongoing use.
Working group member Clair Higginson said the open day was held as there had so far been no expressions of interest from potential tenants.
Some interesting ideas came from some of the 40 to 50 visitors yesterday, she said.
''The suggestion has come up that we have a orchard here for community use, which is certainly what it would have looked like back in the day.''
Central Otago District Council property and facilities officer Christina Martin said another option was for the cottage to become commercial accommodation for people wanting a pioneer experience.
The working group would discuss ideas at its next meeting and could hold more open days.
The cottage was built in 1896 by settler William Vallance, who lived there with his wife Jean and eight children.
Great-grandson Neil Grant, of Middlemarch, who visited yesterday, remembered going there as a child while it was still occupied by his great-aunt, Hazel Wesley.
She was the Vallances' daughter, and the cottage's last permanent occupant, before she left in the 1970s.
''It looks mostly the same,'' Mr Grant said.
''She would always have the coal range on, in winter and summer. It was all she had to cook on, so it was always very smoky.''
The Vincent Community Board has approved up to $42,300 for the installation of an exterior power connection point and a bathroom in the building next to the cottage.
