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Community Support Integral to the Project's Success Project description and photos courtesy of Kristi Cardoso, executive director, the Liljestrand Foundation. The Liljestrand Foundation recently completed its biggest preservation project to-date, a two-year restoration of the iconic deck of Liljestrand House. One of the signature design elements of the Liljestrand House is its elegant, triangular, wrap-around deck that was an integral part of Vladimir Ossipoff’s original design for the house, completed in 1952. Over the ensuing 69 years thousands of visitors to the house have stood on the deck, enjoying the panoramic views of Diamond Head, Honolulu, and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Liljestrand House circa 1952/53. Photo courtesy the Lijestrand Foundation. In 2021, the years of weather and a deteriorating gutter system made preservation of the deck an urgent priority.  Extensive gutter repairs, completed in 2020, resolved the dripping and pooling water that had slowly degraded significant parts of the decking to the point where it was no longer safe to stand on. In order to once again be able to safely host visitors on the deck, the Foundation launched an “All Hands on Deck” campaign at the end of 2021. Completed in early 2023, the new deck is stunning. The project was only made possible thanks to the generous support of many “deckhands”.  Over $50,000 was raised from individuals in Hawai`i and across the United States. Jim Keller and Armstrong Builders LLC made an incredible donation of project coordination and incomparable carpentry services. Dean Sakamoto Architects drafted the as-built plans and together with structural engineer Ken Hayashida of KAI Hawaii and architect Joe Ferraro, developed the plans for the steel work and framing based on the original [...]

  National Historic Preservation month is a celebration of our nation's heritage through historic places with organizations across the country promoting a variety of activities on the local, state and national levels. PRESERVATION MONTH IN HAWAI‘I   In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation will highlight special historic places in Hawai‘i throughout May in our E-newsletter, blog and social media. We invite the public to share your own favorites and sites that hold special meaning to you by posting photos to HHF's Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using the hashtags: #PreservationMonth #HistoricHawaii   In the end, we will take care of only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. ~Baba Dioum, Sengalese conservationist and environmentalist   ORIGINS OF PRESERVATION MONTH Preservation Month began as National Preservation Week in 1973 at the suggestion of Donald T. Sheehan, a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Advisory Committee. A Joint Congressional Resolution was introduced on February 15, 1973, with President Richard Nixon signing the resolution into law on May 5, 1973. First Lady Patricia Nixon, read the Presidential proclamation at the National Trust awards luncheon on May 8th: “As the pace of change accelerates in the world around us, Americans more than ever need a lively awareness of our roots and origins in the past on which to base our sense of identity in the present and our directions for the future.” In 2005, the National Trust extended the celebration to the entire month of May and declared it Preservation Month to provide an even greater opportunity to celebrate the diverse and unique heritage of our country's cities and states.   Image at top: [...]

The Story of “The Little Church in The Cane Field”  This history unfolds in Kaumakani on the southwest side of Kaua‘i Island between Waimea and Hanapēpē. The Church will celebrate its 110th anniversary in June 2023. By guest contributor, Timothy Tovar DeLaVega With Filipino immigrants arriving on Kauaʻi sugar plantation’s beginning in 1910, four former seminary students from the Visayan Islands, Philippines; Cornelio Lutao, Francisco Barcelona, A. Basan and Erihilgio Ramos, followed their calling to minister to the Filipino sakadas at the Hawaiian Sugar Co. Ltd. Plantation located in Makaweli. Soon after, Cornelio Lutao requested material and land from the Hawaiian Sugar Company Ltd. to build a sanctuary. Thus, in the middle of sugar Camp Four, the residents of Camp Four constructed a church on the leased land with material donated by the plantation manager. Originally named the Makaweli Filipino Methodist Episcopal Church, the chapel was dedicated on June 1st, 1913, and is presently known as Kaumakani West Kaua‘i United Methodist Church. Soon after its dedication, the little Church became the social center of the Filipino community as it was the only plantation church that held services in Ilocano. When Superintendent Fry visited the Makaweli Church in 1916, he reported baptizing 40 persons at an evening service. And after the Hanapēpē Massacre of 1924, the Church donated the caskets and held services for the lost strikers. Camp Four was integrated into Kaumakani Village in 1947 and now sits alone on land leased from the Gay and Robinson family. It is the oldest Filipino Methodist church in Hawaiʻi. Throughout its history, Kaumakani Church has continued its volunteer legacy, with the addition of a social hall and numerous remodels and enlargements. On September 11, 1992, the ill [...]

Kaʻapuni o Waimea: An Enhanced Experience through Waimea Valley By guest contributor Waimea Valley staff Photos courtesy Waimea Valley  Waimea Valley is recognized as a place of awe, a place of profound natural beauty and splendor; wahi pana or a special, legendary place.  In February 2023, Waimea opened a new program offering visitors cultural learning opportunities at three of the valley’s cultural sites. These interactive stations allow the visitor to ground their experience in cultural values and engage directly with the valley’s mission: to preserve and perpetuate the human, cultural and natural resources of Waimea for generations through education and stewardship. The overarching theme of the Kaʻapuni o Waimea is the Hawaiian cultural value of hoʻokipa – which we define as being gracious, considerate, and kind, a welcoming value and obligation; the act of treating others as we would like to be treated. The kaʻapuni (the circuit) is through three prominent Waimea Valley cultural sites: Hale Hō‘ike, Kauhale, and Kahua Pā‘ani. Each site is presented as a guided engagement; explained and shared through their inherent significance and supported by associated Hawaiian cultural values. At each of the three sites, participating guests will earn an identifying sticker by learning a cultural value. Visitors learn about Waimea Valley as an intact ahupuaʻa and the responsibility of preserving its natural resources at Hale Hōʻike. Hale Hōʻike (the house of wisdom and welcome) is the orientation area of the valley where visitors are introduced to the significance of the botanical collections and cultural sites. Spending time at Hale Hō’ike is important for enhancing the visitor’s sense of place and sense of respect for the sacred space they have entered. At Hale Hō’ike the visitors are introduced to [...]

Black History in 19th Century Hawaiʻi By guest contributor Deloris Guttman, founder and curator of the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum (formerly known as the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii). The history of the Black presence in Hawaiʻi goes back to the early sailors. Blacks were crewmembers of James Cook’s second and third Pacific voyages. Free and enslaved Blacks served onboard these ships in a variety of capacities. Many other African Americans worked in the maritime industry during this period as crew members, pilots, cooks, stewards, stevedores, builders and captains. The National Park Service Underground Railroad Network for Freedom dedicated wayside interpretive signage that tracks the life of Anthony D. Allen, a slave from Schenectady, New York to freedom in Hawai‘i in 1810. Washington Middle School in Honolulu is recognized as the Anthony D. Allen Site and home to the signage sharing Allen’s extraordinary story. Anthony D. Allen (1774-1835) was a slave who sought and gained his freedom at age 24. From enslavement in Schenectady, New York, he made his way by land to Hartford, and by sea to Boston where he shipped out on a commercial ship that began his travels around the world. He was hired as a steward for seven years and cook for one year under the same captain. Faced with recapture in 1806, he bought his freedom with help from the ship's owner who let him pay back the money demanded over time. After many adventures and traveling the world, Allen left the sea to make the Hawaiian Islands his home in 1810 because men of African descent could reside there without harassment or enslavement. Allen married a Hawaiian woman and had three children who survived to adulthood. Called Alani by [...]

  By Lilinoe Andrews Specialist, Chancellor’s Office, University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu Hawaiian diacritical marks comprise just two symbols: the glottal stop (ʻokina) and the macron (kahakō). Are they important? Worth the extra time it takes to insert them into your text? That depends, so let’s discuss. Simply speaking, the two diacritical marks are a way to show how a Hawaiian word should sound to a person unfamiliar with a particular word. More importantly, those two little marks are keeping the Hawaiian language alive. In 1826, a committee of seven missionary gentlemen thought diacriticals were important enough to wrestle mightily with them in the challenge to put the once oral language to print. They decided, after doing similar work in Tahiti, that Hawaiian should have just twelve letters. The ʻokina appeared in Andrews’ dictionary in 1865 and the kahakō in Judd, Pukui, and Stokes’ dictionary and grammar in 1945. In 1978 the ʻAhahui ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi published “Recommendations and Comments on the Hawaiian Spelling Project” and standardized the use of the ʻokina and kahakō. Not only do the ʻokina and kahakō change the sound of a word, they often end up changing its meaning. For example, these are separate words: pau=completed paʻu=soot paʻū=damp, soaked pāʻū=woman’s skirt Diacriticals are important to keeping Hawaiian (the fastest growing native language in the U.S.) alive because they help expand the lexicon and give the language the subtlety that fluent speakers know by heart. And they are helpful for those unfamiliar with the language, like little cheat marks to keep you from getting your pāʻū all paʻū. Your kumu hula would not be happy. There are a few contexts where diacriticalizing is not seen. For example, in the Niʻihau church [...]

Last Remaining Building at Mānana Barracks Reveals Rich History By guest contributor Deloris Guttman, founder and curator of the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum (formerly known as the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii). Naval Aviation Supply Depot (NASD) Personnel Quonset Hut 33 is a one-story former military building on the grounds in the Urban Garden Center, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources in Pearl City on O‘ahu. There were a 100 Quonset huts constructed in 1944.  Quonset Hut 33, the only structure that remains, served as galley storehouse at the segregated housing Manana Barracks for African American military personnel in the Naval Aviation Supply Depot.   In the midst of World War II, several factors led to the U.S. Navy’s construction of a segregated encampment between Pearl City and an area known as the Waiawa Gulch.  Among them were various racial tensions at housing areas for African American Cargo Handling Units at Pearl Harbor and surrounding areas, the arrival of over a dozen predominantly African American Construction Battalions (CBs or “SeaBees”) to the Fourteenth Naval District in July 1943, and the construction of two supply centers in Waiawa Gulch where many African American navy men worked. Under “Jim Crow” law, black servicemen could not socialize with white servicemen in Hawai‘i. A separate USO facility was setup.   The Manana Barracks housed over 1,800 African Americans that worked at the Waiawa Gulch Naval Aviation Supply Deport as stevedores and cargo handlers.  The contributions of these men who lived at Manana Barracks provided vital service to World War II war efforts in the Pacific Theater. During World War II, the majority of African American military personnel in Hawai‘i served in the [...]

Lili‘uokalani Protestant Church's History Spans more than 190 Years and Four Structures Submitted by the Historic Preservation Committee of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce; working to preserve and perpetuate the legacy of historic Haleʻiwa.  Reprinted with permission. The area that now surrounds the intersection of Haleʻiwa Road and Kamehameha Highway has seen many changes over the years. The iconic Haleʻiwa Hotel was built there in 1898. The Sea View Inn was built on the site in 1955, became the Chart House in 1990 and then Haleiwa Joe’s in 1998. But nearly two centuries ago, it was the location of O‘ahu’s second oldest Hawaiian Church built by a missionary couple whose beloved legacy is the Liliʻuokalani Protestant Church in Haleʻiwa. Between 1820 and 1863, twelve companies of missionaries were deployed to the Hawaiian Islands by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The Reverend John Smith Emerson and his new bride Ursula Sophia Newell Emerson were part of the Fifth Company. After six months on a whaling ship that set sail from New Bedford, Massachusetts, they arrived in Honolulu in May of 1832. The Emersons were assigned to serve the 8,000 residents along Waialua’s thirty-mile coastline. High Chief Gideon Pele’ioholani La’anui, the Konohiki of Waialua and one of the first Hawaiians to become literate in both English and his native language, helped them to establish a simple church near the Anahulu Stream’s outfall at Waialua Bay in July of 1832. The chartered name of the church was Ka Ahahui Kahu Malama Waiwai O Ka Ekalesia O Kawailoa Ma Waialua, more often called the Hawaiian Church in Waialua or simply the Waialua Church. By 1841, an adobe church with a high thatched roof [...]