Local picks and shovels made a fair contribution to the construction of the Cromwell Memorial Hall, Cromwell man Jim Woods (93) says.
He was not in the district when the hall was built, but knew many who helped on the community project, he said.
The hall was mostly funded by government money given to communities to build war memorials, but local labour made a huge contribution to the project, Mr Woods said.
Men would head to the hall after work and children after they had finished school to work on it. Many of the men were returned servicemen, and many did large amounts of work on the hall during the weekends, Mr Woods said.
The hall, which was built in 1959 and opened in 1960, was used by the community for dances, weddings, community events and concerts, and had also been an important base for the Cromwell RSA since then, he said. There were not many people in the district who remembered the beginnings of the hall, but he thought those who built the hall would want it to survive.
"They would say carry on and rebuild, and keep the war memorial there."
