Christian church and heiau sustain damage

KAWAIHAE, Hawaii » Sunday's earthquakes damaged two religious structures from Hawaii's history: the Puukohola Heiau at Kawaihae marking the success of King Kamehameha I, and the Kalahikiola Church in North Kohala marking the successful introduction of Christianity in Hawaii.

As much as 100 feet of the facing stone of sloping rock walls of the heiau, a temple dedicated to the god Ku, sheared off.

Major portions of three of the church's walls crumbled, leaving the structure supported in large measure by the wooden bell tower at the undamaged end.

The heiau, sitting high on a hill overlooking Kawaihae Harbor, is a national historic site, rebuilt on the site of an existing temple by Kamehameha in 1791, said chief ranger Ben Saldua.

At the northeastern corner, the eastern wall up to 17 feet high suffered settling and bulging, Saldua said. Up to 15 feet of the 224-foot-long wall was affected.

Much greater damage took place along a 50- to 75-foot section of the 100-foot northern wall, where the facing stones collapsed in a heap.

A National Park Service archaeologist was to survey the damage today, Saldua said.

Kamehameha, who was merely a regional ruler at the time, was struggling with his cousin Keoua for control of the Big Island.

An adviser told Kamehameha that he would rule all of Hawaii if he rebuilt the heiau and dedicated it to the war god Ku, Saldua said.

Knowing that he was going to die, Keoua came to the dedication of the new heiau and was killed.

Two other structures, the much smaller Mailekini Heiau and the home site of Kamehameha's British adviser John Young, were also damaged, Saldua said.

By 1832 the transition to Christianity was well under way, and the first Kalahikiola Church was built at Kapaau in wooded North Kohala.

The third church building on the site, consisting of large stones and limestone mortar, was completed in 1850, pastor George Baybrook said.

The church withstood the large 7.2-magnitude earthquake of 1975, with only some damage to the plaster facing the covered stones, church moderator Jennie Vega said.

But the same places that suffered plaster damage then have gaping holes in the walls now, she said.

The front of the church was so badly destroyed that church members had to climb over rubble to enter the building to protect books inside.

Baybrook said he was thankful the quakes hit early in the morning, before services began. Otherwise, people would have run out the front door, the area of the worst collapse.

Barnie Bogart, a tourist from Juneau, Alaska, who does church restorations, was one of the people who visited the damaged church yesterday. He had no doubt that the building could be saved, although it will be costly, he said.