HistoricHawaii

The annual summary of activities and finances for 2019 is now available as a downloadable pdf. We're pleased to share the activities and community impact that is made possible with the support of our grant partners, members, sponsors and volunteers.  Together, let's continue to preserve places that nurture and enrich us. "As I enter my sixth year of service on the Board of Trustees, I continue to find inspiration in the pledge of Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation’s mission statement, “To keep alive and intact for the enrichment of present and future generations the inherent beauty of the Hawaiian Islands and its unique historic role in the development of the Pacific Basin.” Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation has enhanced my awareness of the cultural and historical significance of many places in our islands that I previously took for granted or never noticed.  More importantly, I now understand the need to protect and preserve these places so I may enjoy them with my children, and they with their children. Continuing this thread is essential to our heritage." - Ricky Ching, HHF President of the Board of Trustees. 2020-2021  

We'd like to hear from you! Thanks to the support of our members, sponsors and grantors, Historic Hawaii Foundation has been able to transition its preservation advocacy and consultation work remotely with minimal disruption.  We also adapted our programming to remote learning, providing several lectures and presentations online that engaged hundreds of participants around the world. To help us keep our momentum going, please complete a brief online questionnaire on future engagement opportunities at the link below.  It will take only a few minutes to respond.  Your feedback will be greatly appreciated by all of us at HHF. Click here to complete the survey Mahalo for your input! We look forward to continuing to highlight the history and heritage that fulfills us with a deeper bond to our Island home.

The U.S Army is developing a nationwide agreement for the treatment of all historic housing constructed between the two world wars. The “program comment” is an option for an overarching agreement between the Army and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) to address all “maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, renovation, abatement, mothballing, demolition, replacement transfer, sale and lease” of family housing constructed between 1919-1940. Army has identified some 2700 total historic housing units on 35 installations across the country. Hawai‘i has the second-highest number of units with 386, following only Ft. Benning, GA with 492. Historic housing areas include Wheeler Army Airfield’s housing district that follows the Garden City design plan with Mission-style houses and the craftsman-style houses in the Canby neighborhood at Schofield Barracks. The program comment will not apply to National Historic Landmarks, such as the Palm Circle NHL at Fort Shafter. Army stated that the national agreement is needed as it addresses lead paint and other hazardous materials. The agency also prioritizes addressing inefficiencies that occur from reviewing each project for housing units separately with inconsistencies between installations. To develop the agreement, Army initiated consultation with stakeholders in October 2019 and continues with monthly conference calls on specific issues. Consulting parties include the ACHP, State and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers and Historic Hawai‘i Foundation. A key provision of the agreement will address design guidelines for rehabilitation and treatment of the historic buildings, especially as Army replaces elements that are contaminated with lead paint. The first draft guidelines garnered 254 individual comments, with HHF submitting some 60 comments (24% of the total) on how the guidelines would apply to Hawaii’s [...]

Who would ever think fabricated rock would be eligible to receive a preservation award?  This was the facetious question that crossed my mind as I headed out with my fellow Preservation Awards Selection Committee members for an unusual site visit at none other than Diamond Head State Park, a state monument that is perhaps THE most iconic natural landmark in Hawai‘i. Known to the ancient Hawaiians as Le‘ahi, and better known today as Diamond Head Crater, it is the dramatic remnant of a once-active volcano consisting of a type of highly erodible rock called volcanic tuff. In 1908, the U.S. Army built a trail from the crater floor up the interior crater wall to the lookout at the Fire Control Station on the summit. This has become the Diamond Head Visitor Trail which now hosts nearly 1 million visitors every year. But this trail is not without its dangers; the volcanic tuff along the trail is prone to rock falls and rock slides that have long been a safety hazard. The trail hugs the tuff rock wall of the crater on one side, with railings protecting hikers against sheer drops on the other. The goal of this preservation project was to prevent hazardous rock fall from the unstable slopes while preserving the appearance of the historic visitor trail. The project included rockfall mitigation at 15 sites along the trail. The slopes of weathered tuff were highly fractured, with multiple cracks showing imminent potential for rock to fall directly on the trail and potentially injuring unsuspecting hikers. The scope of work consisted of clearing the slopes and scaling lose rocks, drilling and installing steel reinforcing anchors, and adding geo-composite drain strips to relieve hydrostatic pressure behind [...]

The Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, Kumu Earl Kawa‘a, Kumu Dwight Kauahikaua, and other stakeholders will be recognized with a Preservation Programmatic Award for the construction of a hale pili representation on the grounds of Hawaiian Mission Houses. In 1820, by order of Liholiho, Boki, Governor of O‘ahu, had a row of hale pili (grass houses) constructed for the second company of missionaries who arrived in April of that year.  The hale, occupied first by Hiram Bingham, Daniel Chamberlain with his wife and five children, and Maria Loomis and child, were situated east of the ship landing, along an uninhabited section of the road to Waikīkī that later became known as Missionary Row. Development, research and permitting phases of the project began in 2014 under the leadership of Spencer Leineweber, FAIA, and Executive Director Emeritus Tom Woods.  Kawa‘a and Kauahikaua served as cultural consultants and hale building experts. Groundbreaking for the building was held in 2018 and the final phase of thatching the hale pili will be completed this year. Design of the hale is based on descriptions found in the journals and letters of William and Clarissa Richards, Charles and Harriet Stewart, and Betsey Stockton from the Mission Houses’ archival collection. The dimensions primarily follow the Richards’ description. In order to ensure the durability of this reproduction and both the safety of it and adjoining structures, noted Peter Young, former president of Hawaiian Mission Houses, “an integration of traditional (‘ōhi‘a) and modern materials (such as artificial pili grass) and techniques were used to build the hale.” Kawa‘a and Kumu Dwight Kauahikaua provided another dimension to the project by developing a cultural place-based curriculum to mentor students of Roosevelt High School and Kinai [...]

The rehabilitation of two historic buildings just off of Ala Moana Boulevard--1900 Screen House and 1940 Pump House--is a wonderful example of how "old" buildings can be preserved and continue to serve the community with a new purpose.  Both structures are part of the larger Ala Moana Pumping Station complex that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. All three buildings were part of an ambitious scheme in the 1880s and 1890s to improve public health in the growing city.  Outbreaks of disease and an epidemic led to the creation of the city’s first public sewer system that would collect waste-water and channel it to this site on Ala Moana Boulevard. From there, powerful steam-powered pumps would force the sewage out into the ocean. The architect selected to create the buildings for this equipment was Oliver G. Traphagen, who had left his large successful practice in Duluth, Minnesota and relocate his family and career to Honolulu in 1887. His many significant Hawaiʻi commissions included the Judd Building on the corner of Fort and Merchant Streets downtown and the Moana Hotel on Kalākaua Avenue in Waikīkī. The 1900 Kakaʻako Pumping Station was designed by Traphagen in a style known as Romanesque. Although it now may seem an elaborate style for such a utilitarian structure, it was commonly used for civic buildings in this period and was often Traphagen’s choice for large buildings he designed in Duluth. The Kakaʻako Pumping Station was rehabilitated earlier and received a Preservation Honor Award in 2017.  It is now the Nā Kūpuna Makamae Center. This Preservation Honor Award is for the rehabilitation of the two smaller buildings on the site: the 1900 [...]