A Special Place: The Manoa Heritage Center

A few weeks ago I was lucky to have been invited to a very special place: the home of Sam and Mary Cooke in Manoa - a historic property that is the Manoa Heritage Center. We toured the grounds and looked at the heiau (an ancient Hawaiian temple), and at the end of the tour we had lunch with the Cookes and visited their beautiful home.  

 The Tudor style historic home was built in 1911, for Charles Cooke and his wife, and designed by architects Emory and Webb.

The "White Garden" (named because all flowers in it are white) was planted at the beginning of the 20th century, at the same time the house was built. Such white gardens were very popular at that time.

The large cauldron is from an old whaling ship.

The cannons came from the Russian fort on Kauai.

Past the old White Garden, native plants abound, like this red lehua flower.

Ancient stone path leads to the heiau.

Mossy lava rocks at the foot of the heiau wall.

Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau is said to have been built my the menehune.

Overgrown with vegetation as time passed by, the heiau was restored in 1993.

Native 'alia plants have silvery leaves

Hawaiian checkers game made out of lava rock

The interior of Kūka‘ō‘ō Heiau. It is thought to have been an agricultural temple.

Ornamental taro grows in the native Hawaiian garden.

Red sugarcane

The front driveway and main entrance of the historic home

The grounds of the estate are currently open for tours. For information, check out http://manoaheritagecenter.org. The house is not part of the tour, it will open as a museum at a later date. Current plans include a new entry and Visitors' Center at the lower end of the property. If you have the chance, go visit the Manoa Heritage Center, you will love it as much as I did!