Historic Hawai‘i Foundation
680 Iwilei Road, Suite #690, Honolulu, HI 96817
Phone: 808-523-2900 Fax: 808-523-0800
Email: webmaster@historichawaii.org
Copyright 2003-2009 Historic Hawaii Foundation unless otherwise noted
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Photo courtesy of new moon foundation
What is it?
Although no one has lived in the homestead for 60 years, this house was once the home of Father Bond, a missionary who devoted his life to the Hawaiian community in Kohala. Built in 1840, it is the oldest wooden structure in Kohala, and, along with the former Kohala Girls School and various expansions to the main house, is part of the 54-acre Bond Historic District. In 1999, the Bond family sold the estate to the New Moon Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by billionaire Bennett Dorrance.
HISTORIC HAWAI‘I FOUNDATION
What threatens it?
In the ’06 earthquake, many of the stone buildings on the estate, including Bond’s office, suffered the same type of damage that the Kalahikiola Church did, with walls collapsing outward from the shaking. New Moon has temporarily shored up the structures, and retained Mason Architects to evaluate the damage, but New Moon director of operations Robin Mullin says restoring the buildings is not a high priority. “We’re not going to demolish the buildings,” she says. “But it’s going to take at least $2 million—that’s a lot of money for something we make no income on. We do have private funding at our disposal, but not necessarily enough to do it in the short term. We might not be able to do this project for years.”
What can be done?
Although the buildings lie within the Bond Historic District, the designation does not legally compel the private landowners to rebuild them. Ultimately, it’s up to New Moon to decide what it wants to do with the homestead, and when.
Story by
Michael Keany, Honolulu Magazine
The Bond Homestead
(Kohala, Big Island)
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