[ A WALKING TOUR ]
Mission Houses a
step back in time
Despite the great number of historic buildings in downtown Honolulu, there aren't that many that transport you back in time. They have been too heavily modified or modernized, or are compromised by their environment.
The little nestling of austere buildings that form the Mission Houses, however, are like stepping into 1820. Even the sounds of the modern city are muted.
The first batch of missionaries sent to the islands were off on a great, ennobling adventure, or so thought the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the quest raised considerable support in New England. The ladies of the mission needed modern lodgings, and so the makings of a house were created out of Maine white pine and cut and fitted in Boston. The pieces, donated by a Boston shipping firm, arrived with the initial Christian landing party aboard the brig Thaddeus and the frame arrived later -- on Christmas Day, 1820 -- aboard the ship Tartar.
The missionaries, with their God-given zeal to reform the "heathen" Hawaiians, became an enormous influence in the islands.
The modest frame house and the adjacent structures, including what later became Kawaiahao Church, in many ways became the moral gravitas of Honolulu.
But it wasn't the first frame house here, not by a long shot. Hawaiian leaders had been buying and building frame houses in kit form for some time already. It looked like the pile of lumber, like a big model kit, would be most impressive when built, and so the missionaries lived under thatch while royal permission was sought to erect a house that might be larger than King Liholiho's.
By the middle of 1821, one room was completed, and the first family moved in, all in that one room. Within a few years, the house was completed, plus a kitchen and clapboard siding added. The pink wallpaper was stuck on with poi.
Next door, a print shop of coral block was constructed, as literacy was a priority, and then missionary business agent Levi Chamberlain built a warehouse/home out of coral block as well.
The complex of three interlinked buildings were in place by 1831, and an adobe schoolhouse built by 1835. The interior space of the schoolhouse was called "the most beautiful room in Honolulu" and became the favored social hall for events.
And so, within a decade, the foundations of modern architecture in Honolulu were laid, side by side -- residential, commercial, educational. All that was needed was a mighty church building to impress the heathens and lift their eyes toward heaven. Something with a bell tower and clocks, preferably.
Mission Houses
Opened: 1821 Architect: Unknown Style: New England Address: 553 S. King St. National Register: 1966 #66000294 (1962 NHL) Hawaii Register: No
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The Mission Houses on King Street preserve a bit of 19th century ambience in the heart of Honolulu.
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Quicktime VR Panorama
Click on pictures to view panaromas
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Every Sunday in the Star-Bulletin Travel section, rediscover the charms of old Hawaii through a tour created by the Honolulu Historic Trail Committee and Historic Hawai'i Foundation and supported by the city's Office of Economic Development. The yearlong project commemorates Honolulu's bicentennial.
See Holoholo Honolulu for past articles.
