The house at 233 Haven Road is an important component in Nelson’s historic port area. It has architectural significance as a characteristic 1880s one and a half storey double box cottage with saltbox roof. Its local historic importance is derived from a close association with the well-known Lukins family and their business interests.

Nelson’s deep water harbour, Nelson Haven, was a reason the area was chosen for the New Zealand Company’s second settlement, and Green Point was a focus of shipping activities from Nelson’s inception. Haven Road attracted businesses and residents involved in port activities, such as important local wharf designer and shipping businessman William Akersten (1825–1905), who had a house within 233 Haven Road’s town acre in the late 1850s. Likewise, when James Lukins (1826–1897) came to Nelson in the early 1860s he quickly made his mark at the port with a coastal shipping operation and leased land for his lime kiln (just north of 233 Haven Road). Burnt lime was mostly used for agricultural purposes and Lukins’ business was ‘undoubtedly the most important source… in the district’. James was so well-respected the port’s flags were flown at half-mast when he died. Edwin Lukin (1861–1931) was his father’s business successor.

It is likely that 233 Haven Road and its smaller neighbour at 231 Haven Road were constructed around the time the Lukins acquired their part of Section 37 in the early 1880s. James’ daughter, Amelia Charles, (1856–1955) owned the property from 1888 and Edwin owned some surrounding parcels. It appears the extended Lukins family lived in the Haven Road houses. In 1916 separate parcels for the houses were surveyed and Amelia sold the cottage section. Amelia and her son, Lewis (1879–1956) who was managing the limeworks, lived in the larger house in the 1920s. After Amelia’s death the house passed to Edwin’s daughter, Melina Ball (1899–1980) and was then sold to a relative on the Charles side of the family. The pair of Haven Road houses are the main remnants of the Lukins’ connection to Green Point and the business they founded, which was synonymous with Green Point until the mid-twentieth century.

The house at 233 Haven Road is a characteristic Victorian modest dwelling, with its construction features suggesting it was built in the 1880s. It originally featured a straight roof front verandah with simple fretwork between double posts and open cross balustrading. A side lean-to was added by the early twentieth century. Later in the century the front verandah was partially enclosed and weatherboards replaced the balustrade. These accretions were removed as part of a restoration project in the early twenty-first century.

With the port and gasworks nearby there were many houses constructed for businesspeople and workers along Haven Road and Russell Street in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, 233 Haven Road is an unusual type among Nelson city’s examples of late nineteenth century houses recognised on the New Zealand Heritage List/Rārangi Kōrero, and a now rare remnant of the area’s past.