Kona Historical Society’s Store Museum Reopens March 3
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Historic PLACE OF COMMERCE got some TLC
March 3 marks the end of a month-long closure of H.N. Greenwell Store Museum for annual exhibit maintenance and preservation projects. Regular hours of operation – 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays – will resume for this historic site, located at the Society’s Kalukalu Headquarters, 81-6551 Mamalahoa Highway in Kealakekua.
Kona Historical Society used the temporary closure in February to conserve and clean artifacts and other exhibit items, provide a special training for its Museum Programs Staff, as well as tackle projects that would have been disruptive to visitors.
The Society hired C&J Metal to install new copper gutters, solder holes in the old downspouts and patch a few holes in the roof of the store museum, which was built in 1870 and is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. The Society also contracted Islandwide Mechanical Service to perform routine maintenance of the air conditioning system in the archive, located below the main floor for the store museum. These important maintenance projects were generously funded by the State of Hawaiʻi Grant in Aid. Lastly, the Society also removed invasive plants around the family house ruins.
The H.N. Greenwell Store Museum gives a telling glimpse into life in Kona before the turn of the 20th century and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi’s place in the global economy. The Society restored this historic general store to approximately 1891. This represents the peak of Henry Nicholas Greenwell’s ranching operations and his mercantile. It is also the year he died.
The H.N. Greenwell Store Museum, as well as the Society’s administrative offices, Portuguese Stone Oven, Kalukalu Pasture, and Native Forest Exhibit, are all located on a 3-acre site in the ahupuaʻa ʻili known as Kalukalu, in the city of Kealakekua. Roughly 300 acres at Kalukalu was purchased by Greenwell in 1850, which was at the time full of native forest and farmland stretching from the coast to the foothills of Mauna Loa. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi was the predominant language spoken in the area, and agriculture throughout the ahupuaʻa consisted of sweet potatoes, dry land taro and breadfruit.
By the end of the 19th century, Kalukalu became the headquarters of Kona’s largest cattle and sheep ranch. The homestead was surrounded by cattle pens, a blacksmith shop, a saddle house, and carriage houses. As a bustling hub of commerce, Greenwell worked with vendors, farmers, purveyors and customers from the many different cultural groups moving to Kona to make their way. Chinese cooks, Hawaiian sheepherders, Portuguese launderers, and others did business in the general store and shared their languages, foods and values.
Interpretive signage, installed last year in the store museum, has helped expand the ways the Society is reaching its visitors and sharing this story.
“Exhibit signage first introduces visitors to three different patrons of the H.N. Greenwell store. The exciting part? These patrons really existed and shopped at this very site. Through perusing the provided shopping lists visitors are challenged to think critically about what the store patrons’ lives may have been like,” said Kona Historical Society Public Programs Manager Audrey Blair. “Take, for example, Manuel ‘Pico’ Golarte’s grocery list, which requires work-related items such as a butter churn and new axe handle, but also contains items of indulgence such as Durham Bull tobacco and oranges for his children to share. The exhibit expands into interpretation of the building’s construction and store’s many functions as a pharmacy, post office, center of commerce, and community hub. As the doors are opened at Kalukalu, we look forward to sharing the rich history here with visitors new and old.”
ABOUT KONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Kona Historical Society is a community-based, nonprofit organization and Smithsonian Museum affiliate that has spent the past four decades collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the Kona districts and their rich cultural heritage within Hawaiʻi.
For more information, call Kona Historical Society at 808-323-3222 or visit www.konahistorical.org. To get the latest updates regarding the Society’s programs, historic sites and special events, “LIKE” Kona Historical Society on Facebook.