The use of reinforced concrete in the Papapetros warehouse introduced this material to the city’s architecture. The Papapetros business prospered for a few years but the crash of 1929 hit the company (and Agrinio) very hard. The price of tobacco collapsed and so did export volumes. During the Second World War the Germans used it as a prison for Jews from Arta and Ioannina (on their way to the Auschwitz concentration camp) as well as Italian prisoners of war, once Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943. In the 50s it housed the school of the gendarmerie, in the 60s and 70s it served as a warehouse for olives and tobacco (under new owners) and it was finally abandoned in the 1980s.