This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. The following text is the original citation considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Completed in 1878-80, the original building at Lincoln College, known as Ivey Hall, was designed by Frederick Strouts and served as accommodation for twenty students and the Director of the School of Agriculture. It is the oldest part of a complex designed by three architects between 1878 and 1923. Strouts designed the west wing extension in 1881. In 1918 John Guthrie designed the east wing which features an Italian Style loggia, while Cecil Wood, a pupil of Strouts, designed the Memorial Hall in 1923. Ivey Hall is one of the earliest large Canterbury buildings to be erected in permanent materials. It is Jacobean in style with features characteristic of Flemish design. It is notable for the contrast established between the pale red bricks thought to have been brought out to New Zealand as ballast for ships, and cream Oamaru stone used for window and gable dressings. The contrasts between materials and the variety of motifs used gives the building a very picturesque appearance. This quality is further enhanced by the expanses of lawn and trees which surround the campus. In 1954 the building was named after W.E. Ivey, the Director of the College from 1878 until 1892. The College has international importance and plays a central role in the agricultural development of Canterbury through its function as an institution for agricultural teaching, extension work and research. It is the third oldest agricultural college in the British Commonwealth and the first in the Southern Hemisphere to offer a course leading to a degree in agriculture. Ivey Hall has very great architectural significance as the earliest remaining large-scale Jacobean building in New Zealand.