Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
building of the church required some 14,000 giant coral slabs (some weighing more than
1,000 lb.). Hawaiian divers literally raped the reefs, digging out huge chunks of coral and
causing irreparable environmental damage.
Kawaiahao is Hawaii's oldest church, and it has been the site of numerous historical events,
such as a speech made by King Kamehameha III in 1843, an excerpt from which became
Hawaii's state motto (“Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono,” which translates as, “The life of
the land is preserved in righteousness”).
This is the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii; the vestibule is lined with portraits of the Hawaii-
an monarchy, many of whom were coronated in this very building. The coral church is
also a perfect setting to experience an all-Hawaiian service, complete with Hawaiian song.
(Hawaiian-language services are held every Sunday at 9am and admission is free—let your
conscience be your guide as to a donation.)
The clock tower in the church, which was donated by King Kamehameha III and installed
in 1850, continues to tick today. The church is open Monday through Saturday, from 8am to
4pm; you'll find it to be very cool in temperature. Don't sit in the pews in the back, marked
with kahili feathers and velvet cushions; they are still reserved for the descendants of roy-
alty.
Cross the street, and you'll see the:
11
Mission Houses Museum
On the corner of King and Kawaiahao streets stand the original buildings of the Sandwich
Islands Mission Headquarters: the
FrameHouse
(built in 1821), the
ChamberlainHouse
(1831), and the
Printing Office
(1841). The complex is open Tuesday through Saturday
from 10am to 4pm; admission is $10 for adults, $8 for military personnel and seniors, $6 for
children ages 6 to college. The tours are often led by descendants of the original missionar-
ies to Hawaii.
Believe it or not, the missionaries brought their own prefab house along with them when
they came around Cape Horn from Boston in 1819. The Frame House was designed for fri-
gid New England winters and had small windows. (It must have been stiflingly hot inside.)
Finished in 1921 (the interior frame was left behind and didn't arrive until Christmas 1920),
it is Hawaii's oldest wooden structure. The Chamberlain House, built in 1931, was used by
the missionaries as a storehouse.
The missionaries believed that the best way to spread the Lord's message to the Hawaiians
was to learn their language and then to print literature for them to read. So it was the mis-
sionaries who gave the Hawaiians a written language. The Printing House on the grounds
was where the lead-type Ramage press (brought from New England, of course) printed the
Hawaiian Bible.
