The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-01-27
Mission HOUSE
NOT FIRST FRAME
But Historical Building Is First
Dwelling Of It's Kind
Erected Here.

The right to be called the CHRIST
Frame House in Honolulu as applied
to the old frame building on King
street just beyond Kawaiahao church,
is questioned, and by one of the first
missionaries who landed here in 1922.
Since the old building was rescued
from the Chinese laundry men, who had
finally gotten possession of it, restored
to it's original appearance, the yard
grassed over again and the sign placed
upon post in the premises announcing
that the building was the Hrst frame
structure to be reared in the city Of
Honolulu, thousands Of tourists have
had their attention attracted to it.
At the meeting of the Hawaiian
Historical Society at the University
Club on Tuesday evening Prof. Il. M.
Ballou of the College of Hawaii read
paper on the old Mission House. The
Building was erected in 1922 by the
missionaries who arrived on the ship
Tartar from New England, the ship
having come around Cape Horn from
the Atlantic into the Pacific.
Ninety Years Ago,
The first missionaries arrived here
from New England in 1920, in the brig
Thaddeus. The old mission house was
the home of early missionaries. Their
children were born and reared there.
, 1t was the enc real house which re.
minded the missionaries of New Eng.
land, and as time went on they checish-
ed il as landmark.
But Professor Ballou in his paper re-
ferred to Captain Chamberlain Is diary
of that early periodic was one who
came in 1920. In his diary he states
that the building, in parts, was brought
ashore from the ship and stored in
''frame building"
That was only two years after the
| first missionaries arrived from New
1 England. The first frame house, ac'
cording to members Of the histCr cal
society, may have been built of lam
Der brought hele from Oregon, as yes
sells came here from the northwest
coast before the missionaries first made
their appearance in the Hawaiian Is
lands.
First Dwelling House.
However, there is one thing certain
and that is that this old mission build
| ing was the first frame building to be
brought around the Horn, even though
there may have been other building
pat up before it came here as po-ta
BILE house. 1t is stated that whateyel
buildings were here when this New
England house arrived, were neEely
,,storehouses and not residences.
The old mission house was restored
to its original appearance in 1907 a
the expense of g. M. Cooke and Georgt
] r. Carter, and was opened to the public
as a museum in November of that year
When the early missionaries arrived
! here, Honolulu had just been made thu
capital of Lunalilo's kingdom, hi
palace being on the present site Of thu
Haekfeld building, and he was strongly
opposed to allowing the missionaries tt
erect any permanent building, especial
" a structure of such Importance al
the one contemplated, which surpassed
in size and luxuriousness the roya
palace itself.
The missionaries had TO prove tina
they were not here for conquest, ant
as the advance guard of an invading
people, before consent was reluctantly
given them to put up their house, ant
even then they were obliged to go fa
out on the outskirts of the town, wher
, bit of the arid plain was given them
the site of the present Kawaiaha'
! church.
Center Of influence.
, Here the mission house was built AM
: contained five rooms, with a. st0reroon
and eating room on the cellar ground
/ Many missionaries families have bee
reared in this house, and there are mum
bers of prominent persons in Honolulu
who have pleasant memories of happ.
childhood days spent in the old build
ing, which was their home.
The kings and queens of Oahu mad
this house a visiting place; here tn
first printed law ever issued in Hawai-
was drafted; here was the center o
the far felt influence which converted
the Islands from heathenism to Chris
tianity. The house was, too, the objec
} of suspicion from that portion of tn
, foreign element in opposition to tn
representatives of the American Boar
of Foreign Missions, and the digging
of the cellar excavation was pointel
out to the king as something which /
would be well for him to watch,
hint of hidden arms and ammunition
being given him.
The rooms of the building are as the,
we're originally planned by some BOstOi
carpenter, as he sawed and htted tn
, boards in readiness to be nailed togethe
| in the far off Sandwich Islands.
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