The Bond Historic District is located in the rural, agricultural area south of the town of Kapaʻau, North Kohala, on the Island of Hawaiʻi.
The buildings are grouped
in three sections - The
Bond Homestead (established in 1841 by
Boston missionary Reverend
Elias Bond,) Kalāhikiola Church (completed in 1855)
and Kohala Seminary (Kohala Girl's
School - complex founded in 1872.)
The Reverend and Mrs. Bond sailed with the Ninth Company of
Missionaries from Boston and settled at Kohala, Hawai‘i. Bond arrived in Honolulu in May of 1841. They were then assigned to Kohala.
Reverend Isaac Bliss, an elderly missionary in Kohala,
had already completed the main house of what is now
known as
the Bond Homestead
compound when Bond arrived
in Kohala in June,
1841.
As a means to provide employment to the people in the region and
support his church and schools, Reverend Bond founded Kohala Sugar Company,
known as "The Missionary Plantation,” in 1862.
Reportedly, by 1885, Bond, who gave all his dividends and profits
beyond his living expenses to the Board of Missions, was their largest single
contributor. The plantation was shut
down in 1973.
The heart of the Bond District is the Bond Homestead located in makai
portion of the property. The Homestead
consists of two residential buildings, one doctor's office and several out
buildings. The buildings contain many
historic furnishings and artifacts dating from 1844.
The area is described in an 1849 account (in ‘The Island World of the
Pacific’) as follows: "It stands in
the center of an area of some five or six acres, enclose with a neat stone
wall, and having a part of it cultivated as a garden, adorned with flowering
shrubs and trees, as the pineapple, guava, acacia, mimosa, tamarind, kukui,
mulberry, geranium, banana, Pride of
China, sugar cane, etc. The house is thatched
with long leaves of the hala-tree
(Pandanus), and has a very pretty, neat appearance, in connection with that
tasteful keeping of the walks and grounds, like the pictures we have of thatched cottages and rural scenes of
Old England."
Kalāhikiola Church is located on a gently sloping site in the middle
section of the property. The structure
was a rectangular building made of lava rock walls.
Kalāhikiola (“the life-bringing sun” or “the day bringing salvation”)
is the name of a small hill on the side of the Kohala Mountain; the name goes
back to the time of the arrival of the first Christian missionaries. ‘Ōhi‘a timbers from forests on the hill were
used in building the church; so when the church was consecrated on October 11,
1855 it was appropriately given the name Kalāhikiola.
In 2006, an earthquake severely damaged the building. In the restoration, the congregation decided
to remove the stone walls entirely, shore and brace the building, and erect new
walls of reinforced concrete, which was then plastered and scored with mortar
lines to resemble the church's original exterior.
The Kohala Girl's School was Reverend Bond's last major
undertaking. For 30-years prior to the
1874 founding of the Kohala Girl's School, Reverend Bond ran a boarding school
for boys. His decision to build a
separate facility to educate native Hawaiian women in Christian living and
housekeeping was made in 1872.
The Kohala Seminary (Kohala Girl’s School) is located mauka of
Kalāhikiola Church; it consists of six wood frame buildings scattered over
approximately 3 acres.
The main residence building is a generally rectangular two-and-one-half
story structure; the building was constructed in 1874 and was used as dormitory
and classroom space. In 1955, the school
stopped functioning.
In addition to the missionary work and founding and operating the
school, the Bonds had 11-children born in Hawai‘i.
The District is listed on both the State of Hawai’i and the National
Registers of Historic Places.
Many years ago, I had the good fortune to have been able to tour the
Bond Homestead with Lyman Bond, great grandson of Reverend Elias Bond. It was a wonderful experience to have a
descendent relate stories of the people and the place.
My brother-in-law, Paul Morgan, while studying architecture, did
extensive review of the Kohala Girls School structures; he gave me a tour of
the Girls School.
New Moon Foundation acquired about 48 acres of the Bond Historic
District and 580 surrounding acres from the Bond family. The purchase agreement included covenants
specifying that real property located in the Bond Homestead is of historic
significance and should be preserved and protected.
New Moon Foundation has been working to restore the buildings and put
them to education adaptive reuse. As
part of its future vision, they intend to offer public tours of the Historic
District.
The image shows the Bond Homestead in about 1900. In addition, I have included additional Bond
Historic District images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my
Facebook page.
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