The former Fever Hospital, located at 140 Alexandra Road, Wellington, opened in 1920 and is a rare surviving example of a New Zealand isolation hospital. Designed in an Arts and Crafts interpretation of the Queen Anne style by Crichton and McKay, the Wellington architectural firm responsible for a number of early twentieth century hospital buildings, the hospital is both architecturally and historically significant. As a medical institution, then education campus and then home to the Wellington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), it has ongoing social significance as a place that has brought medical staff, patients, students and volunteers together through shared experiences.

Until the development of preventative vaccines and more effective treatments, isolation was seen as the best method to curb the spread of many common but life-threatening infectious diseases including diphtheria, scarlet fever, influenza and tuberculosis. Wellington’s first purpose-built isolation hospital opened in 1910 on land that had previously been designated part of the Wellington town belt. By 1917 an urgent need to use that hospital solely for the treatment of diphtheria patients led to the decision to build another isolation hospital further up the hill. The foundation stone for the new hospital was laid on 15 August 1918 by the Minister for Public Health, but a post-war shortage of labour and materials made progress slow and by 17 January 1920 the new hospital was still not operational. However, that day arrangements were hastily made to accept 34 young men from the government naval training ship Amokura, who had been diagnosed with influenza. Other patients had been accepted by May 1920, although no official opening seems to have taken place.

Constructed from brick and timber with a stucco finish, the layout of the hospital reflected ideas on the importance of fresh air and sunshine in the treatment of infectious diseases, particularly tuberculosis. The V-shaped design allowed for two long wings for the wards, each with partially glazed verandahs on the north facing sides and sun porches at the end. A small wing near the entrance contained kitchen, dining, sewing and linen rooms and a covered walkway connected the hospital to the nurses’ accommodation and administration building. The Arts and Crafts interpretation of the Queen Anne style included asymmetric facades, complex roof lines, half-timbered gables and Art Nouveau leadlight windows with timber joinery.

The hospital closed in 1953. It was primarily used as storage until its conversion to a ‘chest hospital’ in the early 1970s when a new ward was built, creating a central wing. It closed again from 1981 until 1987, when it became the Wellington Polytechnic’s School of Music campus for ten years. By 2009 the building was occupied only by a caretaker and occasional boarders. Recognising the building’s significance, the Wellington City Council called for proposals from potential long-term occupants and, in 2014, after extensive earthquake strengthening and refurbishment the hospital welcomed patients once more - this time of the animal variety as the home of the Wellington SPCA.