The circa 1938 house at 139 Waimea Road has architectural value because it is a representative example of a weatherboard English Cottage style state house from the period, in an area of Nelson characterised by its mid-twentieth century state housing. It has local historic and social importance as one of Nelson’s earliest group of state houses built under the first Labour government’s prolific scheme. It signifies the ideals directing the first Labour government’s social and economic policies as well as the subsequent early 1950s drive by the first National government to begin selling these state assets.

From the 1880s some railway workers were provided government rental properties and in the early twentieth century the first large-scale state housing projects were launched, like those represented in Nelson’s Elliott Street. These were motivated by the belief that good health, quality housing and growing the economy were interrelated. The Great Depression’s economic and social effects intensified the need for state housing. Upon taking office, the first Labour government introduced legislation targeted at improving the living conditions of every citizen. In 1937 Labour began its wide-ranging project of building state homes, ideally using New Zealand or locally sourced materials and the unemployed as labourers.

In September 1937 construction of Nelson’s first state houses under this scheme were approved and the government quickly obtained properties in Waimea Road and surrounding streets. 139 Waimea Road’s section, along with its surrounding 15 house lots, was transferred to the Crown in December 1937 for housing purposes. By mid-1939 over 3000 state houses had been built nationwide and 200 of those were in Nelson.

However, by the late 1940s there was increasing dissatisfaction with the cost of state housing. Labour was defeated in the 1949 election after 14 years in office and from late 1950 the first National government began offering purchase incentives to state house tenants. Many tenants saw no merit in buying their house. However, in 1953, 139 Waimea Road’s new tenants, the Kaywoods, took up the offer. This was a relatively rare decision in Nelson at the time and by 1957 only 23 per cent of the local houses offered had been sold. The Kaywoods owned the property until 1991.

The English Cottage architectural style was the most frequently used for this era of state housing and, as shown at 139 Waimea Road, generally featured a simple format, tiled hipped roofs and casement windows. In 1953 the garage, accessed from Tukuka Street, was constructed. The house, on its elevated corner site, has a terraced front garden and concrete retaining walls fronting Waimea Road and Tukuka Street. The building’s architecture clearly denotes it as an archetypal New Zealand state house of this period, despite some exterior modifications to the front windows and entrance.

There are several state houses on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero (the List) around the country from various periods, including the first Labour government’s First State House in Wellington. The house at 139 Waimea Road, Nelson’s only List entry of this type, is prominent in its streetscape, appears to be well-maintained and is a good example of this era of state housing.