So writes Maitland Historical Society member Val Rudkin in her booklets Take A Look Back At High Street Maitland – Part 1 and Part 2.

Research for the booklets has taken four years.

An interest in the history of Maitland’s commercial buildings goes back to childhood for Mrs Rudkin, who was born at Lorn and attended the-then Maitland Girls High School.

She recalled the time her father won a contract to remove colonnades and verandahs from the Glebe Buildings on either side of St Andrews Street and fronting High Street, Maitland.

“I remember thinking it was awful at the time to see all those pieces lying in the yard,” she said.

“I was only 11 at the time, it would have been 1950, but the pieces were removed by order of Maitland council to allow double decker buses passage along High Street.

“All those pieces were sold off eventually as people took an interest in restoring old buildings.”

A romantic notion about the people who lived above the High Street shops was something Mrs Rudkin thought about as a 16-year-old junior clerk working for Mehan and Co (337 High Street), which she writes about in the booklet.

“I would often walk from Lorn, then along High Street and I developed a sense of the place,” she said.

“While working at Mehan I was always quite fascinated with the old building, especially upstairs where people lived and the mention of a ball room above the shop.

“But it wasn’t until 40 years ago when Maitland Historical Society formed and I became one of its first members in 1977 that I expanded on my interest.”

Between the fascinating pages of Mrs Rudkin’s booklet lies the stories about some of Maitland’s iconic buildings, commercial activities and the people who established them, including the Cohen building, Commerce House, B Griffiths and Son, Robert Hyndes, Ann Gould and the Exchange Hotel.

Booklet two covers EP Capper and Sons, the Volunteer Hotel, John Lee and Company and AS Mehan and Co and Mrs Rudkin plans to continue her research for an ongoing series.

Mrs Rudkin’s booklets and flood historian Peter Bogan’s 1893 Flood booklet will be for sale at Steamfest.

Proceeds will benefit Maitland Historical Society.