The former Nelson Institute Building, built in 1884 and 1911, has considerable historic and social significance as the foundation of two of Nelson’s most important public institutions: the public library and the Nelson Provincial Museum. It links these facilities with the social aspirations for education, literacy and scientific and intellectual development demonstrated by the original Nelson colonists, and echoed around New Zealand in the nineteenth century. The building has architectural and aesthetic significance for the impact of its ornate Edwardian Free style street frontage designed by A.R. Griffin, complemented by the Gothic-revival character of A.F.T. Somerville’s earlier timber addition.

The Nelson Literary and Scientific Institution was established in 1841 by New Zealand Company colonists before they had even disembarked, to promote intellectual development and literacy. In 1858 it was re-organised under a new name, the Nelson Institute. Members initially met in premises on Trafalgar Street, but in the late 1850s passed a motion to fundraise for a new purpose-built building on land donated by the Provincial Government. Architect Maxwell Bury designed a two-storey totara building fronting onto Hardy Street, and the foundation stone was laid by visiting German geologist Dr Ferdinand von Hochstetter in 1859. Two years later it was opened, and members and the public were able to appreciate and study the museum collections, use the library, and attend lectures and classes. An extension, designed by A.F.T. Somerville in the Gothic-revival/Elizabethan styles and built in timber by Andrew Brown, was added to the rear in 1884, and renovated in 1903. On 25 February 1906, however, the Institute’s premises were largely destroyed by fire, with only the rear addition surviving.

Committee members vowed to rebuild bigger and better. It took six years of fundraising, updated legislation, a loan from the Public Trustee, local government subsidies, and a donation from Thomas Cawthron to achieve this, after the conditions of a grant from library benefactor Andrew Carnegie were deemed too difficult to meet. In 1911 architect Arthur Griffin designed a two-storey reinforced concrete building with impressive brick and masonry street-frontage. A central entrance from Hardy Street, flanked with rectangular windows, was overhung with a Queen-Anne oriel window – a design feature carried over from the 1861 building. Arched second-storey windows, dentilled pediments, pilasters and other rendered Classical decoration contributed Italianate style. A cupola and flagpole topped the building. Robert Galbraith won the construction tender; the plans also included moving the 1884 addition back 30 feet and connecting it to the new building. It was opened on 27 November 1912.

Although the Nelson Institute remains active, Nelson City Council purchased the building in 1965, running the library services from there until 1990. The museum function was separated out in 1973, moving to Isel Park. In 1990 the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology bought the building and it became the New Zealand School of Fisheries until 2011, when seismic concerns rendered the building vacant. These concerns had also seen the cupola, pediments and finials removed in the 1930s.