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In Humanities Teacher Billie Napoleon's Historic Preservation class at Mid-Pacific Institute, high school students learn the value of buildings and places in their community through personal experiences.  "The lessons have to be relevant so that the students care about the projects," explains Napoleon.  "We have to start with the personal, rather than first diving into preservation policy." This past semester, her students were exposed to historic cemeteries and invited to think about them as places of history and connection and as places worth preserving. Cemetery historian Nanette Napoleon was invited to give a special presentation to the class and helped provide context for this perspective. Students were tasked with an assignment: to visit the grave of a relative with a family member and to write a reflection about the experience. Thanks to Billie and our collaborative partnership, HHF is pleased to share a few of these insightful essays below.*  We applaud the ingenuity and resourcefulness of this lesson plan; how it enabled students to engage with a historic site safely and together with family members. Mahalo to Billie, Nanette, the students and their families! [su_divider top="no" size="1"] Cemetery Visit: Valley of the Temples (Kāne‘ohe, HI) by Sydney Tsuruda Overall, the Valley of the Temples Memorial Park is a very well manicured and maintained place.  The site has a beautiful scenic view from every point.  The Ko’olau mountains add to the amazing Hawaiian aesthetic and the abundance of native Hawaiian plant species contribute to the lush nature of the land.  The cemetery is rather quiet and makes me feel a sense of tranquility and peace. I went with my mom to visit her grandparents. She told a story about how she would often stay at their [...]

The State of Hawai‘i has experienced extreme flooding this past week, causing significant damage to historic communities, neighborhoods and businesses. To support our friends and neighbors affected by this crisis, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation shares expertise from FEMA and other resources on how to salvage family heirlooms and repair historic properties.  Prompt action is key. After the Flood 1. Secure your property: Your two most important tasks immediately following a hurricane are to ensure the safety and security of people working on site, and to keep valuable or important building fabric from the debris heap. Saving architectural fragments, building materials, decorative plaster, etc. can help with restoration later. Personal safety is always the highest priority when entering buildings damaged by floodwater. Check for structural damage before re-entering your home to avoid being trapped in a building collapse. Keep power off until an electrician has inspected your system for safety. Turn off the gas. Be alert for gas leaks. Look before you step. After a flood, the ground and floors are covered with debris, including broken bottles and nails. Floors and stairs that have been covered with mud can be very slippery. Take photos of any floodwater in your home and of damaged items for insurance purposes. Inventory what was damaged or lost on your property. Call your insurance agent to file a claim and report the damage as soon as possible. Homeowners insurance usually covers losses caused by wind, storms, or broken water pipes, but not surface flooding. Rescue the most valuable items, but never attempt to salvage belongings at the expense of your own safety. Wear long sleeves, sturdy shoes or waterproof boots, and plastic or rubber gloves during cleanup. Wash your hands often with soap [...]

March 16th will mark one year since HHF staff started working from home. While this has presented unexpected positive outcomes for our small team, we’re all feeling some stir-craziness and suspect we're not alone (though still in isolation).  To encourage everyone to hang in there, we’ve decided to share some of our best coping strategies. Though in no way groundbreaking, these hacks for positivity have been helpful and we welcome you to give them a try. Cartoon by Barry Blitt, The New Yorker Beth Iwata While I'm grateful to have my job and family to keep me grounded, making these small adjustments to my daily life help stave off monotony: 1) Changing up the email publications I subscribe (and unsubscribe) to has refreshed my inbox. 2) Utilizing a free and super-convenient exercise app like Nike Training Club gets me moving and is a sure way to lift my spirits. It offers an endless assortment of exercise classes guided by professional trainers and in the length of time needed.  With so much variety, it's fun to explore and keeps me going. (However, if anyone has a secret cleaning-house motivator, please let me know!) Andrea Nandoskar My favorite pastime, which has become even more important during the pandemic, is earthing—the practice of standing, walking barefoot or lying upon the Earth.  While this practice was a natural part of life for our ancestors, the advent of modern life has distanced us from such simple, life-affirming nourishment. I take time daily to walk barefoot in the grass usually at historic Kapi‘olani Park in Waikīkī. When I can’t make it there, I walk to the ocean and sit or lie in the sand to “recharge and recalibrate” my [...]

Beatrice K.H. Krauss, PhD Ethnobotanist, Teacher, Activist and much more...   (August 4, 1903 – March 5, 1998) By HHF volunteer Rona Holub Beatrice Krauss was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1903 on the grounds of the original Kamehameha School in Kapālama (while her father was a teacher there).  Her parents, transplants to Hawai‘i from San Francisco, later settled in Mānoa.  Krauss graduated from Punahou School, received her graduate degree at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and later studied at the University of Berlin and Cornell University.  She spent a large part of her career in research at the Pineapple Research Institute for over forty years, then became an educator.  Her interest in the care of the land and most particularly in plants, was influenced by her father, Frederick Krauss, a professor of agriculture at the University (after whom Krauss Hall is named).  Beatrice Krauss attended the University majoring in agriculture and became the first woman to attain a degree in that discipline.  Records show that at her research job at the Pineapple Research Institute, she served as an assistant physiologist in the 1930s and was part of an unusually diverse team of professionals for the time, housed in buildings adjacent to the UH campus. Throughout her career at the Institute, she worked as a plant physiologist and morphologist. As such, she would have conducted research in the physiology, breeding, and yield of pineapple crops with expert knowledge of the physiology, anatomy and form of plants. At UH, Beatrice Krauss taught ethnobotany, the study of native people and their plants.  Her class became one of the most popular, so much so that it grew from one section to six.  She received no salary [...]

An innovative management and operations plan for the historic Jean and Zohmah Charlot House proposes a new path forward for the unique cultural asset. Work on a new framework plan for Charlot House began over the summer of 2020 through a pilot partnership between Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the University of Hawai‘i Community Design Center (UHCDC) at the School of Architecture in Mānoa. The proposal includes novel, revenue-generating programming scenarios with steps for incremental implementation over the next five years. “The Jean and Zohmah Charlot House is an opportunity for both the university and the community to understand and support the intrinsic value of great works of art, the artists who create them, and the role of successive generations in sharing the history and works with others,” said Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of Historic Hawai‘i Foundation. “The partnership between our non-profit organization and key departments at the University allowed all of us to play to our strengths,” Faulkner said. “This collaboration helped us explore possibilities through lenses of both community value systems and academic rigor.” The split-level Ranch-style house built on Kāhala Avenue in Honolulu in 1958 is uniquely significant for its integration of art and sculpture, the use of varied materials and textured surfaces, the openness and connection between indoor and outdoor living spaces, and the importance of cross-cultural history and connections that led to one of the great collaborations between artist and architect. “The coherence and novelty of its siting and spatial organization offer mid-century modernism an exemplary sub-tropical showpiece,” said Professor Daniel Friedman, FAIA, former dean of the School of Architecture and current UH-Mānoa Campus Architect. “Custom-crafted wall-size glass doors dissolve the boundary between interior and exterior space, multiplying the social circumference [...]