One of the most famous residents of Mānoa in the 19th century was Queen Kaʻahumanu, prominent historical figure and favored wife of Kamehameha I. After Kamehameha’s death, she became the kuhina nui (chief regent) and along with Kamehameha II and III governed the islands until her death. Kaʻahumanu’s residence is well documented and visits to […]
Excerpted from Partners in Change by David Forbes, Ralph Thomas Kam, and Thomas Woods (2018) (p.195): Amos and Juliette were married at Danbury, Connecticut in 1836 and ten days later, as members of the Eight Company of missionaries, sailed from Boston in the barque Mary Frazier and arrived in Honolulu on April 9, 1837, after […]
in Legends of Old Honolulu (© 1915, p.130) Pueo, the owl-god, was also Pueo-alii, or the “king of owls.”…From his own residence on Owlʻs Hill (Puʻu Pueo) he governed all the valley, apparently with much wisdom… The legends say that the menehune built a temple and a fort a little farther up the valley above […]
According to oral tradition, Menehune are said to have built Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau. In fact, upper Mānoa Valley, along with portions of neighboring Nuʻuanu Valley were said to be Menehune strongholds. On the side of the hill, just across Mānoa Road, on the site of the former Castle home, the Menehune were said to have built a […]
From Paintings, Prints, and Drawings of Hawaii from the Sam and Mary Cooke Collection by David Forbes (2016): Sam and Mary Cooke’s assemblage of Hawaiian paintings, drawings, and prints at Kūaliʻi follows in the collecting footsteps of Sam’s great-grandmother, Anna Rice Cooke. Anna was born on September 5, 1852, at Punahou School to missionary-teachers William […]
In the introduction to his book, Myths and Legends of Hawaiʻi, King Kalākaua wrote a brief history that included the settlement of Hawaiʻi. According to his text, Nanaula, a distinguished chief was the first to arrive in the islands from “southern islands” around 400-600 A.D. During this chief’s lifetime, other settlers arrived, and none of […]
From Paintings, Prints, and Drawings of Hawaii from the Sam and Mary Cooke Collection by David Forbes (2016): Like many men of his generation, Charles Montague Cooke Jr., the builder of the house he named Kūaliʻi in honor of the seventeenth-century Oʻahu chief, was interested in the graphic arts. He formed a collection of several […]
as told in “The History and Legends of Manoa Valley,” Pan-Pacific, vol V, no. 1, April-June 1941. The menehune are said to have built a small heiau and further up the valley from Puʻu Pueo, in a place called Kūkaʻōʻō. While all versions of this legend credit the menehune with the construction of the heiau, […]
Charles Montague Cooke Jr., always called Monte, was born in Honolulu in 1874 in the old frame house at what was once part of the Honolulu Mission Station and is now the Mission Houses Museum. Events surrounding his birth may suggest one of the reasons for his attachment to the Hawaiian culture and why he […]
From Paintings, Prints, and Drawings of Hawaii from the Sam and Mary Cooke Collection by David Forbes (2016): Lila Cooke lived at Kūaliʻi until her death in 1970. She left her home to her son Charley, and she left her garden (which included Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau) to her daughter Carolene. Sam talked his father into letting […]