HistoricHawaii

Historic Hawai‘i Foundation is serving as a consulting party to the Hāna Highway Bridge Improvements project led by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT).  The project is evaluating six bridges along the Hana Highway (State Route 360) for potential improvement. The highway, a critical transportation link, connects East Maui communities with the rest of the island.  It is also one of the most spectacular sections of roadway in its natural scenery, dramatic hairpin turns, and historic character.  Below, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation provides a description of the project and an update as of September 2021. February 2020 Project Overview The oldest bridge on Maui, Mokulehua Bridge along the Hāna Highway (photo above left), is one of six historic bridges being considered for “improvements” by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).  The planning effort includes evaluating a range of alternatives, from repair and rehabilitation of the existing structures to demolition and replacement using new design and materials. Hāna Highway, Route 360, is part of the Hāna Belt Road Historic District, listed on the Hawai‘i and National Registers of Historic Places for its historic road, bridges and culverts. The Hāna Belt Road is historically significant for engineering, transportation, commerce and social history.  The construction of bridges and a road to Hāna between 1900 and 1947 was a major engineering achievement across precipitous mountainsides and through the wilderness of East Maui.  Fifty-nine bridges built between 1908 and 1947 remain along the route.  The completion of an automobile route to Hāna in 1926 ended that community’s isolation from the rest of Maui.  The road opened East Maui to settlement, agriculture and tourism. The Hāna Belt Road is the best remaining intact example of [...]

A new and networked nonprofit seeks to raise $15 million to buy Spalding House from the Honolulu Museum of Art. by Chad Blair, Honolulu Civil Beat October 3, 2021 - Republished with permission It started over a meal at Merriman’s in Honolulu in late January 2020, as things sometimes do. Meeting a few months after the Honolulu Museum of Art put its historic Spalding House property on the market for $15 million, film festival director Jeannette Paulson Hereniko was introduced to realtor-broker Sarah Bakewell just two months before Covid-19 began to ravage Hawaii. Hereniko, whose many hats include founding the Hawaii International Film Festival in 1981 and serving as HIFF’s director for the next 15 years, wondered whether Spalding House, nestled in Makiki Heights, could be converted into a hub for local filmmakers rather than sold as a luxury private residence. “Sarah had an idea of saving Spalding House for the arts, something similar to what she had done for a historical home in St. Louis,” Hereniko said. “I had been looking informally for years up to that point to do something for film, to find a place — a home, a theater where we could show movies. It had been a dream project for years.” Recalls Bakewell, a Kauai native with Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers, “When I became aware that it was going to go on the open market, I really felt strongly that it would be great if we could find a group to get together and purchase it and keep it as a community arts asset. Because someone could buy it and make it a home, which of course it was.” A screen shot from the promotional video for reimagining Spalding House in Makiki [...]