Historic Contexts provide research, evaluation and examples of patterns, themes and trends in which a building, structure, site, object or district is understood. The contexts provide information on meaning and provide the necessary background to understand why a given resource may be historically significant.
A historic context document identifies and explains those patterns and describes the types of properties associated with that context, as well as physical characteristics and the locations where the properties are found. Contexts are required components of nominations to the Hawai‘i and National Registers of Historic Places. The contexts summarize the themes to which the resources relate, explain how the properties illustrate that theme and compare the nominated resource to other resources associated with the theme.
Historic Hawai‘i Foundation is providing the links to Historic Contexts and associated resource inventories for various themes and resources that have been published by the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Division and other federal, state and local governments, as well as those by other educational and non-profit institutions. As additional context studies are made available, they will be added to the page. See the reports for proper citations and references.
