The early missionaries played a significant role in the formation of Hawaiian culture, bringing not only the Christian religion, but education and technology. They promoted the use of the Hawaiian language, and increased the literacy rate to the point that it exceeded that of New England from where many of them had come.
Rev. Jonathan Green built the original buildings in 1835, and they were added to over the next fifteen years, forming a unique multi-sectional building. Rev. Edward Bailey later became involved in the development of the sugar industry on Maui.
The buildings have been preserved and serve as the headquarters and museum of the Maui Historical Society. There is an eclectic array of collections from representative snails of the island to paintings and many artifacts. The upper floor has been maintained to show the original furnishings and daily life of the missionaries. In the courtyard area are several boats and other larger objects.
The building was donated to the Maui Historical Society in 1992 by Masaru "Pundy" Yokouchi.
The museum is open from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Admission is 5.00 for adults 4.00 for children.
Visit the
Maui Historical Society
OLD BAILEY HOUSE
Wailuku, Hawaii
From the
National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form
The Bailey House (Hale Hoikeike) is a combination of four structures built between 1835 and 1850.
The original portion was built in 1833 by Reverend Jonathan Green and is a two story lava stone structure measuring approximately 30'x20'. Splayed door and window openings provide light and access through the 20" thick walls. A high pitched gable roof is covered with wood shingles. The lower floor is built partially into the side of a hill with the walls retaining the earth on the uphill side. The lower level opens onto a stone porch (on the south side) which is covered by a second level wood deck supported by square wood posts which continue to the roof eave. The porch extends to the west side and is covered by a roof overhang on both sides. A small wood porch projects from the wood gable wall of the third level bedroom. This portion of the house has two rooms on each of the lower two levels with a single bedroom and storage area on the third level.
At approximately, this same time (1833), a single story lava stone cookhouse was constructed slightly uphill from the living area. This structure also has a wood shingle gable roof but with no projecting overhang. It also has splayed door and window openings. The single room is dominated by a large fireplace and oven (now sealed) flush with the interior wall. The mass of the oven structure projects beyond the north wall.
In 1837 a single story lava stone structure with a basement was built for Miss Ogden, a teacher for the girls' school in Wailuku. It shares the south wall of the cookhouse with the floor at the same level. Small windows were provided above grade admitting a small amount of light into the basement. Access to the basement is by way of stone steps on the west side. It has a wood shingle gable roof in the same direction as the cookhouse but slightly higher. The basement is a single room that has been altered to accommodate two modern toilets and one large room.
In 1842, the Reverend Edward Bailey connected the existing structures. Utilizing the existing walls he enclosed the space between the buildings with lava stone walls from the basement to the gable of the original Green portion. He then added (in 1850) a third level in the Green gable and another third floor level approximately three feet lower in the new portion of the Bailey section on the main floor level. This opens into one of the two rooms of this section on the main floor level. Access to the upper level is by a wooden stair from the front room. Interior access to the Bailey basement is by way of a wooden stair directly below the upper stair. The Bailey basement, with cut stone floor, opens on the north side of the Ogden basement and on the south side to the wood flooring of the Green first level. The wall thicknesses vary from 20" to 36" on different walls which are covered with plaster said to be mixed with human hair from Hawaiian ladies of Reverend Bailey's congregation (undocumented local traditional story).
On the west side of the residence stands a single story plastered lava stone structure which was the dining hall for the girls seminary (a two story structure further to the west which is no longer standing). The wood shingled-roof is "Hawaiian" in form (high pitch hip with the pitch breaking.
The Bailey House, now the Maui Historical Society's Hoikeike (House of Display), was originally built as a parsonage for the ministers of the Wailuku Church. The Reverend Jonathan Green built the earliest sections as two separate structures. The main section was built on a hill so as to be half a story underground and one and a half stories above. It measured approximately 30'x20'. The kitchen section in the rear was approximately 15' square. In 1837 additional rooms were added to the kitchen although the two sections were still not joined together.
By 1840 Edward Bailey was in Wailuku working for the mission. His main duties were dispensing medicine and taking charge of the educational facilities in the area. In 1842 he became principal of Wailuku Female Seminary, and it was in this same year that he added the joining section of the house. As it was built on a hill, the floor levels of all the sections were uneven. Bailey continued in missionary work at Wailuku until 1850. At this time he purchased a fee simple title to the Girls' boarding school, the house and lot, and began his interest in what was to become Wailuku Sugar Company. Because of his growing family, Bailey added two rooms upstairs in 1850 and had the entire house re-roofed.
In 1858, the value of the Bailey House and lands was thought to be about $2,200 ($2,000 for the house, $200 for the two acre lot). It was one of the most valuable parcels of land in the islands at that time according to the Reverend Conde, the business agent for the American missionaries in Hawaii.
Hale Hoikeike is a significant physical record of the early missionaries that lived in the Wailuku area. It is one of the most complete and undiluted examples of early missionary architecture remaining in Hawaii. The buildings remain essentially as they were in the mid 1880's. Various occupants have made minor alterations or replacements over the years; however, the existing buildings are of the original character, and for a large part of the original material. The missionary builders adhered to traditional methods of construction from Europe and early America, adapting them to materials and skills available in Hawaii. Although the main body of the buildings were of thick masonry with small shuttered openings capable of withstanding the severest New England winters, concessions were made to the warm Hawaiian climate by building covered open at plate height over the wall and continuing with a lower pitch over the porch where the eave is supported with wood posts). The interior is a single space with splayed door and window openings with wood frames in the 2' thick walls. The continuous stone porch is flush with grade on the rear (north) side of the building and over four feet above grade on the front (south) side.
The buildings are sited on the downward slope of a hill and surrounded by lawn. Large trees of many varieties as well as many shrubs surround the buildings which are well set back from the road and reached by a gravel road and turnaround.