The Vardø Police Station is situated in Vestervågen, on the corner between the streets Strandgata and Roald Amundsens gate. Strandgata, which is the most important shopping street in town, is named after the beach that follows along the eastside of Vestervågen. Roald Amundsens gate was given its name in 1948, previously it was called Evjegata.

Today this large corner house holds the Vardø Police Station, originally built by the Interior Seamen's Mission. This mission ran the Evangelist operations and welfare work among the fishermen and seamen. Previously the mission had many fishermen's inns along the coast, all with the universal name Havly. The inns typically had a meeting hall, café, reading room, bathrooms, mail- and telephone service, and some ran a standard boarding house. Havly was run by The Interior Seamen's Mission until it was taken over by the Norwegian government towards the end of the 1970s.

The building, which is from the reconstruction period, is centrally located in town. It is a large angular three-storied building that was erected on the old site of the fishermen's inn. Ole Halvorsen, an architect from Bergen, designed the building. Halvorsen is also known for having designed several Norwegian churches. Hotel Havly was completed in 1952 and was consecrated on Easter Sunday in 1953. The project ended up costing 720,000 Norwegian crowns.