Blog

By Mindy Pennybacker It began with plaque envy.  In 2015, after my husband, Don Wallace, and I had purchased 3052 Hibiscus Drive from my four brothers, we noticed that more than a dozen homes in our neighborhood boasted elegant, bronze plaques identifying them as City and County Historic Residences. We wanted a plaque of our own for three reasons. We wanted to commemorate my late grandparents, Lawrence and Mary Kang, who had bought the house in 1951, and my mother, Dolly Kang Lott, who maintained it with care and resided in it until she died. At times, it had housed up to nine family members from four generations. It is filled with memories of loved ones and big parties, and Don still cooks Korean barbecue on the cinderblock grill my grandfather built. Don and I had a big mortgage and small salaries, and the city’s property tax exemption for historically designated homes would help us afford to keep the house in the family. My family has always been proud of the tall, three-story, white wooden house with its peaked, gable roofs and big, double-hung windows admitting air and light from all directions. Don and I thought its age and unique style deserved recognition. It was built in 1929, and the architect was Swedish, my grandfather had said, although he couldn’t recollect the name. Neighbors said they’d hired architectural specialists who did all the research and filled out the historical designation nomination forms submitted to the Hawai‘i State Historic Preservation Division, known as SHPD. But we heard they charged thousands of dollars. Impecunious and underpaid journalists who prided ourselves on our research skills, we decided to do it ourselves. We quickly realized we would [...]

By Laurel Margerum Growing up, I did not pay much attention to the 120 to 140-year-old windows at my family’s seasonal camp in Maine. I was much more interested in the world to be explored on the other side of the glass, from the rocky islands to be reached by dinghy to the mossy hiking trails explored on foot. I first took notice of the windows when my mother pointed out an iridescence splash of light from their wavy glass on the hardwood floor. As I got older, I also began to understand how much work my parents and my mother’s parents put into maintaining the house. By the time I went to graduate school for Urban Planning and Historic Preservation, I was determined to contribute to the caretaking of the house that had always been my favorite place in the world. One thing needing urgent caretaking was our windows. My grandmother had restored them once in the 1970s after she and my grandfather purchased the camp. But almost fifty years later, most needed reglazing again, and no one really knew how to do it. During the summer between my first and second years of grad school, I interned with Maine Preservation’s Summer Fellows program. The program included a five-week placement with Bagala Window Works, a premier historic window restoration firm based in Westbrook, Maine. Over the course of the placement, I learned how remove old glazing putty and glass (in one piece!), prepare sashes for reglazing, reglaze with linseed oil putty, and repaint. Those five weeks were some of the most rewarding, valuable, and fun weeks of my life. I loved the challenge and endurance of glass removal and the quiet concentration [...]

For over 40 years, the historic former courthouse and police station in downtown Hilo has been home to the East Hawai‘i Cultural Center (EHCC), a nonprofit arts organization serving Hilo’s creative community since 1969. On the ground floor, galleries and exhibition spaces showcase the work of local and international contemporary artists while upstairs, an intimate 100-seat theater hosts performances, film screenings, lectures, and poetry readings. Constructed in 1932 and listed on the National and Hawai‘i Registers of Historic Places, the iconic two-story structure on Kalākaua Street has anchored Hilo’s town square since the Territorial Era. Over the years, the paint on the front lanai started to crumble as invasive species steadily overtook the surrounding landscape, prompting EHCC to embark on a transformative landscaping project in 2023, with a grant from HHF’s Hilo Preservation & Beautification Program. EHCC’s Native Plant Revitalization Project aimed to beautify and revitalize the grounds by reintroducing native plants and providing educational resources for visitors and passersby. The new Native Plant Garden was officially unveiled at Center’s Native Plant Pā‘ina on May 18, a celebration that brought together over 150 people with performances of oli and hula, ‘ukulele music, local food, keiki activities, and information about native plants. Designed in partnership with Laulima Nature Center, master gardener Yoga Ida Bagus and artists Sculptural Accents, the garden features native kalo, hāpu‘u, pōhinahina, tī plants, naupaka, and kupukupu ferns in planter boxes, gracefully spanning the building’s front facade. “As you know, how something looks on the outside matters. The improvement of our outside grounds has already changed how people feel about EHCC—from our staff to volunteers to visitors. ~Laurie Rich, Executive Director, East Hawai‘i Cultural Center Rich continues, “The improvement of our [...]

By Camie Foster Klum Our family has the privilege of serving as the current caretakers of an 8- by 10-foot board-and-batten cottage in the uplands of Waimea on the Big Island on what once was Parker Ranch land. We are not quite sure how old it is, but we believe it already has hit the century mark. Lifelong Waimea residents tell us that it used to be a bunkhouse or living quarters for one of the Parker Ranch paniolo. It has weathered storms and hurricanes with little apparent impact. Fortunately, although it has been fitted as a workshop, very little has been added to the structure other than layers of paint. I fell in love with it at first glance, and my respect for all that it represents has only deepened over the years. Someone carefully crafted the structure and oriented the two walls with windows to catch a healthy breeze without bearing the brunt of high trades. The windows, thankfully, appear original, as do the layers of glazing and paint. As a matter of fact, the only noticeable impacts of time are one cracked light — and the fact that at some point, someone removed one of the windows and put it back inside-out. I brought photos and measurements to the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation Trades Training Workshop on Historic Wood Window Repair in September, simply hoping for suggestions on where to find replacement glass and to see if I could learn how to proceed with a repair. Through the kindness of the hosts and instructors, I came home with a carefully cut piece of antique glass and the knowledge of proper procedures. Once my vintage Fletcher-Terry No. 5 point driver — the exact [...]

The first batch of a planned series of educational and historic interpretive materials has been released to enrich the passenger experience along Honolulu’s elevated train system, known as Skyline. Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) produced three items that were publicly released in April 2024: Coloring Book Professional historians and illustrators prepared a coloring book to educate children about local history at each transit station. Featuring illustrations reflecting historical events or significant sites in Hawaiian culture, each page includes a synopsis highlighting the area’s history. The intent of the coloring book is to give children a broad historical knowledge of each built and planned station while fostering creativity. DOWNLOAD Stories Along the Skyline Brochure This brochure describes the station names, the aesthetic column designs and artwork in the first nine stations. It provides details on the cultural aspects of each station and the significance of its surrounding area. DOWNLOAD Educational Field Guide The Educational Field Guide focuses on early transportation and bridges located in Segment 1, which extends from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. DOWNLOAD HART developed the educational materials to share histories of places accessible from the guideway as part of the suite of mitigation measures to resolve effects on historic properties identified along the rail system’s route. The project’s Programmatic Agreement (Stipulation VII) includes several ways to engage with the public, especially passengers but also the general community, to learn more about historic events and places. The original Agreement called for all of the products to be complete at the time passenger service began, which was July 2023. However, the construction schedule was changed to open the [...]

If you're a preservation and history buff (and if you're reading this we assume you are), you'll be excited to add one or more of these recently published titles to your summer reading list. Happy Reading! Tambi Larsen’s 100 Entertainments of Kauaʻi Published by Kaua‘i Historical Society, 2023 Tambi Larsen was a Danish, Academy Award winning art director who married Barbara Dole (daughter of James Dole) and bought a home in Hā‘ena, Kaua‘i in 1961 where he would later spend several months of his retirement each year. During this time, Larsen decided to visually celebrate natural and man-made settings around the island and thus began a body of artwork he called “One Hundred Entertainments.” These whimsical colored drawings created with Prismacolor Pencils featuring buildings and architectural features and elements from the natural world, are a love letter to the Garden Island. Part art book and part history book, 100 Entertainments of Kauaʻi offers a charming, insightful, and enchanting vision of Kauaʻi's places, nature, and lifestyle. Each illustration is accompanied with a brief history or anecdote written by five local historians of the Kaua‘i Historical Society. Tambi Larsen passed away in 2001, and in 2003, his wife Barbara bestowed the Kaua‘i Historical Society with the rights to publish these gems. Available at the Kaua‘i Historical Society: https://kauaihistoricalsociety.org/product/tambi_larsens_100_entertainments_of_kauai/ Architectural Conservation in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands National Experiences and Practice By John Stubbs, William Chapman, Julia Gatley, Ross King Published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2024 The fourth in a series that documents architectural conservation in different parts of the world, Architectural Conservation in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands: National Experiences and Practice addresses cultural heritage protection [...]