Pacific Hall reached its Quasquicentennial (125th) Anniversary last year and we are delighted to share a summary of how it came to be.
The first effort to launch a public museum devoted to Hawaiʻi can be traced to the Hawaiian National Museum, authorized by Kamehameha V in 1875 with exhibits arranged in an upstairs room of the new Aliʻiōlani Hale. As President of the Board of Education, Charles Reed Bishop was the museum’s initial supervisor.
The original Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum building shortly after completion, summer 1890.
Mr. Bishop held greater ambitions for a facility that offered a more complete history of Hawaiʻi. That goal moved forward after the 1884 death of his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who bequeathed her personal property, including Hawaiian artifacts, to Mr. Bishop. The idea advanced further in 1885 with the death of Queen Emma, who also bequeathed her collection of antiquities to Mr. Bishop, leading him to combine the two collections in a new institution.
Construction began on The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in 1888 on a parcel of land adjacent to the new Kamehameha School in Kalihi-Palāma and was completed two years later. During construction, Mr. Bishop successfully negotiated the purchase of additional collections, including the Hawaiian and Pacific antiquities of the Boston Museum of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
As the new museum’s team was cataloging and arranging items for display, it became apparent that there would not be enough space for all of the exhibits. The solution was to design and begin construction of a new three-story building at the back of the original museum and it was named Polynesian Hall.
In 1891, a local newspaper, Daily Bulletin, reported, “Mr. Bishop has accordingly determined to proceed with the erection of a large addition, to be occupied with similar objects representing the other islands of Oceania. Negotiations are already in progress for extensive acquisitions by exchange and purchase from collections in Australia and New Zealand”.
The main building of the new museum opened in June 1891 and is now referred to as Pauahi Hall. The Polynesian Hall galleries opened to the public in December 1894.
There would be one more major addition–Hawaiian Hall–which was dedicated in November 1903.
Each of the halls has undergone renovation over the years, and rehabilitation of the past decade are restoring the buildings to their original condition. The first phase of rehabilitation work on Hawaiian Hall was completed in 2008. Rehabilitation of Pauahi and Polynesian Halls’ exhibit and entry areas was completed in 2012.
Polynesian Hall was renamed Pacific Hall after the renovation to better reflect the focus of its exhibits.
Rear view of Museum showing Polynesian Hall under construction, 1893.
The Polynesian Hall galleries shortly after opening (1894).
The extensive rehabilitation of Pacific Hall in 2012 received a Preservation Award from Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 2014.
By John Williams, Preservation Honor Awards Project Manager
Source: “A Museum To Instruct and Delight”, Roger G. Rose, Bishop Museum Press, 1980.
Pacific Hall’s Quasquicentennial (125th) Anniversary will be recognized this year at the Preservation Honor Awards. Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation’s Awards Program celebrates the major anniversaries of kama‘āina businesses, organizations and institutions, commemorating their success and longevity as vital contributors to the singular culture of the Hawaiian Islands.
This year’s Preservation Awards will be held as a virtual event on July 22, 2020 at 5:00 PM. Please refer to our homepage for an upcoming announcement.