St Alban's is the third church to be built in Pāuatahanui. It is located on the site of Mātaitaua Pā, built in 1846 by the Ngāti Toa leader, Te Rangihaeata, nephew of Te Rauparaha. The pā buildings included a whare karakia (church). Te Rangihaeata and his people left Mātaitaua after it was attacked by Imperial troops in 1846 and the pā became a military stockade. In 1857 W. Blackie built a small interdenominational chapel on land donated by a local settler, Thomas Hollis Stace, for the purpose. By 1890 the chapel, which was also used for a schoolroom, was too small. The parish undertook to raise the money for a new church, and eventually the architectural practice of Clere, Fitzgerald and Richmond was commissioned to draw up the plans. The foundation stone was laid in August 1895 and the church was opened in June 1896. It was consecrated by Bishop Wallis on St Alban the Martyrs Day (17 June) in 1898. The original chapel remained standing until 1908 when it was demolished.

A simple Gothic Revival church, the building has lancet windows, external timber-framed buttresses and, in the interior, scissor trusses with knee braces. The apse is semi-circular in plan. In general the building is timber-framed, with rusticated weatherboards on the exterior and tongue and groove lining in the interior. It has a steeply pitch corrugated iron roof.

St Alban's church has served the Pāuatahanui community for over 100 years. It has strong links to the early farming community of Pāuatahanui, which raised the money for its construction. St Alban's has architectural significance as a well-resolved timber, Gothic church designed by Clere, Fitzgerald and Richmond, one of the most prominent architectural practices in Wellington. Frederick de Jersey Clere (1856-1952) was a noted architect in Wellington and, from 1883, was Diocesan Architect of the Anglican Church.