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Come hear the history of Hōlau Market at this Historic Preservation Month event! HART’s Planning team would like to invite you to a collaborative gathering with the State Historic Preservation Division, a historic preservation lunchtime event at HART-owned Hōlau Market on Friday, May 27, 2016 at 12:00pm-1:00pm: He Inoa no Hōlau: Ka Mākeke i ka Mele Hōlau Market (next to site of planned Chinatown Station) 928 Kekaulike Street, Honolulu, HI 96817 Friday, May 27, 2016, 12:00pm RSVP at: http://holaumarket.app.rsvpify.com/ HART will showcase a property we own, Hōlau Market, located on Kekaulike Street adjacent to the future site of the Chinatown Station. Within its walls is a unique story of a native Hawaiian woman, Mary Ellen Hōlau Loncke, who in the early 1900s saw a need to bring Hawaiian food back to feed native Hawaiians who worked in the midst of Chinatown and Honolulu Harbor.  She endeavored to bring the food of her people to the specifically Chinese area to enhance the availability of familiar food to Hawaiians, an allegory and parallel to the ongoing grassroots efforts taking shape now a hundred years later to return to traditional Hawaiian diets and cultural connections through food. Beyond the story of female indigenous entrepreneurship is another story to tell, that of the wealth of information and historical documents that shaped the research of this property.  HART’s Planning team utilized resources often overshadowed in western-focused research and delved into a Hawaiian language newspapers and personal ‘ohana oral histories.  Through the discovery of research, a Hawaiian mele composed by noted “Hawaiian Songbird” Lena Machado emerged – a tribute to the market upon its opening day, simply called “Hōlau.” HART will conduct standard Hawaiian protocol, tell the story of Hōlau Market, [...]

Preservation means something a little bit different to each person but there are common threads in the responses of everyone who answered our call for thoughts on why they care to preserve the receptacles of our past. Alison Chiu of Fung Associates in Honolulu Shares Her Thoughts on Why Preserving our Past Matters "Each place has a story to tell because of the people who, over the years, have come together to share experiences, connections, and memories together. The hope is they will continue to do so. To me, historic preservation represents the interconnectedness of our world, and of these shared values and experiences across different cultures and generations. Preservation and innovation are complementary. In doing what we can to retain historic spaces and utilize them in modern ways, we help to encourage and sustain a vibrant community in order to help build future generations." ~Alison Chiu is a founding Board Member of Docomomo US, Hawaii Chapter and Past President in 2015. She is an Architectural Historian/Designer with Fung Associates, Inc.  She has served as a volunteer docent at many Historic Hawaii Foundation events.

"Preservationist Nanette Napoleon is considered Hawaii's leading expert on graveyards. She's the author and photographer of a book on Hawaii's oldest public graveyard. She gives walking tours of the site and she supervised documentation of more than 300 graveyards and 30,000 tombstone inscriptions throughout the state."     (From PBS's Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox). Historic Preservation and Sense of Place By Nanette Naioma Napoleon For me, historic preservation is one of the most important disciplines in our society today. Much of our cultural and historical identity rests in our ability to clearly see the value of preserving our historic and cultural sites, which define us as a unique multi-ethnic community. Buddhist temples, heiau, plantation houses, military outposts, loʻi systems, Chinese society buildings, bridges, salt ponds, train tracks, fire houses, petroglyphs….they are all a part of our rich history and gives us a strong sense of place in the world and within our specific neighborhoods and communities.  Without them, our man-made environment would become a bland reproduction of “Anywhere” America. Of course for me personally, historic graveyards rank number one in terms of historic sites that should be appreciated as important historic, cultural and genealogical sites. I have spent the last 30 years of my life dedicated to the preservation of such sites through documentation projects, walking tours, lectures, onsite cleaning and maker restoration efforts, and a book about Oʻahu Cemetery. Cemeteries give us a unique view of our past that no other historic site can.  They preserve, in stone, the lives of tens of thousands of individuals, each of whom contributed, in their own unique way, to what we have become as a society today. Family descendants and friends find much solace and a [...]

Frank Haines and his Award The Frank Haines Award, presented by the Historic Hawaii Foundation at the annual Preservation Honor Awards Ceremony, was established in 2009 and is named for master architect Frank Haines, FAIA who passed away on August 10, 2017. From 1948, Haines headed many prominent architectural projects, including the Prince Kūhiō Federal Building, Kaiser Moanalua Hospital, Kaiser's Honolulu Clinic, Bishop Square and the restoration of the Ali‘iōlani Hale. This award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated sustained and outstanding achievements in the area of preserving the significant historic and cultural places of Hawaii. Below is a list of all of the recipients of the Award since its inception in 2009.  We are deeply indebted to these visionary and hardworking individuals who have taken great strides to preserve Hawaii's historic places and inspire others to follow suit. 2009 Frank S. Haines, FAIA 2010 Billy Fields, in recognition of his lifetime dedication to restoring significant Native Hawaiian sites and teaching others his cultural practice. As a career stone mason, Fields concentrates on restoring sacred and traditional Native Hawaiian sites using traditional, dry-stack techniques used prior to western contact and the introduction of mortar. Using these traditional techniques, he furthers the traditional masonry practices in the repair, restoration and reconstruction of dry-laid stone walls, platforms and terraces on significant structures including Hapaiali‘i and Ke‘eku Heiau at Keauhou; Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau in Mānoa; and walls, fish ponds and burial platforms across the state. Billy Fields (2010) 2011 William R. Chapman, D. Phil., in recognition of his work as Director, Historic Preservation Program, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. The Historic Preservation Program at UH Mānoa was founded in 1986 by William [...]

Ahupua`a Boundary Marker Dedication by Mahealani Cypher Ever since I was little, my tutu shared her stories with me, tales of our family aumakua, interesting events that occurred, paranormal and extraordinary encounters, important people in our family history. I captured those stories of family history in written form and shared them with all of my cousins. When I would take her for drives up the Windward Oahu coast, she could name all of the ahupua`a as we passed valley after valley - knew their names and families from these areas.  As an adult, I learned that many people did not have this knowledge passed on to them. When asked where they came from, the responses often were regional rather than specific locations. Along with others in our Hawaiian civic club, I initiated the ahupua`a boundary marker project to connect island residents with the old names of the ahupua`a in which they lived, and their kuleana to care for the cultural and natural resources of these places. We dedicated the first stone ahu, marking the boundary between Kane`ohe and Kailua, at Castle Junction some years ago - an event celebrated by both communities as a remarkable restoration of an important part of our island history and cultural practice brought to modern times. _________________________________________________________________________________ Mahealani Cypher is an active community volunteer, she also owns Native Knowledge LLC, offering consultation on native Hawaiian issues, historic preservation and Hawaiian perspectives on planning and conservation. Ms. Cypher has been involved as a community advocate on Windward O‘ahu issues for over 35 years, participating in numerous community and Hawaiian organizations since 1975. She currently serves as president of the O‘ahu Council of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, immediate past president [...]

Richard and Sooz Mirikitani own the historic “Carl and Florence Bayer House,” which is historically significant for its architectural style. It is an early and excellent example of the simple Craftsman style homes designed by Territorial architect Raymond Llewellen Morris of Lewers & Cooke.  The house incorporates the graceful characteristics of the simple Hawaiian style house popularized by Morris with its high-pitched roof, extended eaves and lanai, as well as design aspects of a French farmhouse.  The Mirikitani’s shared their perspectives on preservation with us. ______________________________ Historic Hawai‘i Foundation:  How long have you owned the Bayer Estate and why did you decide to make it your home? Richard’s family purchased the property from Mr. Walter Bayer (the only child of the home’s builders, Carl and Florence Bayer), who lived in the home until moving to the mainland after its sale in 1971. We eventually became the owners of the Bayer Estate, and were inspired soon after to breathe life back into this charming little seaside property.  When we first acquired the property, we were living in Kailua and commuted back and forth on the weekends between home and Aina Haina, to work on restoring and furnishing the home and enhancing its gardens.  While we were not originally searching for a historic property, we soon fell in love with the Bayer Estate and its “Old-Hawaii” ambience and charm, and ultimately decided to pull up stakes in Kailua, load all the dogs into the car, and make the Bayer Estate our home. HHF: The Bayer Estate is listed on the Hawai`i State Register of Historic Places.  What inspired you to nominate it for the Register? As its owners and new “guardians”, we developed a feeling of obligation [...]

Discover Waikiki’s architectural gems By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi April 3, 2016, Honolulu Star Advertiser As a child growing up in India, Purnima McCutcheon was a dreamer whose imagination was fueled by old temples, mosques, forts and palaces. “I was born in Hyderabad but raised in Mumbai and traveled around the country a lot with my family,” she said. “Some of those buildings were centuries old, and I thought they were spectacular. I visualized being part of those historical scenes. Also, as a classical Indian dancer, I’ve always had a keen awareness of space and environment. Architecture has been the perfect career for me because I’m able to combine my interests in art, history and physics.” COURTESY ERIC MCCUTCHEON Purnima McCutcheon Today McCutcheon is a project architect with Group 70 International; a member of the American Institute of Architects, Honolulu Chapter’s board of directors; and co-chairwoman of the volunteer committee of architects and architectural historians that has organized a guided walking tour of Waikiki as part of the 10th annual Architecture Month observance in April. The two-hour tour will focus on eight sites. Docents will be at each site to explain their architectural significance. “Waikiki plays a key role in Hawaii’s history and economy,” McCutcheon said. “The tour will show how Waikiki’s architecture and infrastructure have contributed to its development as a world-renowned resort.” The “First Lady of Waikiki” — the Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa — opened as the Moana Hotel on March 11, 1901, with 75 rooms in a six-story wooden structure that its architect, Oliver Traphagen, called “Colonial Style adapted for the tropics.” Well-heeled guests arrived at a porte-cochere marked by six Ionic columns and flanked by colonnades adorned [...]