The Mānoa Heritage Center promotes the thoughtful stewardship of Hawai'i’s natural and cultural heritage through preserving and interpreting an extraordinary historic property. The Center includes Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau, a Native Hawaiian garden, and the historic home, Kūali‘i. The Heritage Center is also dedicated to documenting the dynamic history of Mānoa Valley.
On the prominent hill of an ancient lava flow, Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau commands a stunning view of Mānoa Valley. The heiau is thought to be an agricultural site, where rites and rituals were held to insure the fertility and abundance of taro, sweet potato, and other crops that were once grown in the valley.
An elegant link to the past, Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau is one of the few traditional Hawaiian structures that still exists in the urban Honolulu landscape.
Surrounding Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau, a native Hawaiian garden features the endemic and indigenous flora of the islands. The garden collection includes many rare and endangered species as well as the plants introduced by early Polynesians.
The stately historic home, Kūali‘i, has long been a Mānoa Valley landmark. Built in 1911 by Charles Montague Cooke Jr. and his wife Lila Lefferts Cooke, the home reflects the gracious days of a bygone era. Placed on the National Historic Register in 2000, the home is still a private residence, but will one day be open to the public as a historic home museum.
Mānoa Valley is one of Honolulu’s oldest and most beautiful neighborhoods. The natural history of the valley reveals a dynamic tale of geological and evolutionary wonders, while ethnic history tells the compelling story of human settlement. Through time and change, Mānoa Valley endures and maintains a unique sense of place.
Famous quotes containing the words heritage and/or center:
“Flowers ... that are so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their colouring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of years been the heritage of children—honoured as the jewellery of God only by them—when suddenly the voice of Christianity, counter-signing the voice of infancy, raised them to a grandeur transcending the Hebrew throne, although founded by God himself, and pronounced Solomon in all his glory not to be arrayed like one of these.”
—Thomas De Quincey (1785–1859)
“Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the center of the silent Word.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)