Chamberlain House (Honolulu, Hawaii)

[1] Construction occurred from 1828 to 1832 to a design by Levi Chamberlain, secular agent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to the Hawaiian Islands.

[2] Levi Chamberlain, secular agent of the mission from 1823 to 1849, found that a grass house was not a safe place in which to store goods; so, after his marriage in 1828 to Miss Maria Patton, a young woman who arrived that year in the third missionary company, he began to build.

Frequently, a shipmaster bound for the Arctic would leave his wife with the Chamberlains until his return in the autumn, confident of her comfort and safety meanwhile.

Through the generosity of a Cousin, the records were stored in the stone office of the Old Mission Home, and by means of later gifts, this larger, insect-proof, fire-proof building was now assured.

[4] Plans were submitted for the renovation of the building, showing the assembly room, stairway, dressing-room, pantry and kitchen below; and above the museum and library.

The woodwork, which had been riddled with borers, was replaced with new, the roof covered with asbestos shingles, and green shutters placed at the windows.

As it was a matter of accommodation only that whalers should take any freight they would, of course, take only small lots of lumber, and it required several vessels to bring sufficient for the house.

The transportation of the large blocks, cut out and prepared to the required size at the reef, were carried by men on their shoulders by means of ropes and a pole, or shoulder-stick, so inserted that two strong natives could lift and convey between them the burden for a long distance, as was their ordinary method before the introduction of bullock and wheel conveyances.

The center pole was withdrawn and fire communicated to the deepest part of the pit by throwing in live coals to reach the light combustibles at the bottom, from whence the entire mass of fuel was in time burned up, the heat therefrom reducing the stones resting above to the required lime for mortar.

The woodwork, good white pine, was brought from Maine around Cape Horn, though the beams came from the Oahu mountains, hauled down by man power, and were supplemented by driftwood.

The kitchen has a low ceiling, two small, deep-set windows, and a New England fireplace with hanging crane, pots and kettles, tongs and irons.

Here the accounts of the mission were kept, letters received and answered from missionaries on the other islands and from Boston, and orders were filled for all kinds of merchandise.

Hundreds of these letters were stored in the Cousins' vault in the Mission Memorial Building, with account books dating back to 1823.

[4] Dry goods and small staple articles of merchandise were kept on shelves in this room, but larger supplies were stored in the cellar or carried to the attic by tackle and pulley.

A wooden grating protected this doorway where visitors often came to get an unobstructed view of the sea when vessels were entering or leaving the harbor.

[2] Returning to the first floor, is the family rooms at the mauka end (toward the mountains) used as a museum filled with such treasures as the old civil war flags from Waimea; the pictures of the second generation of "Cousins" or Mission children on the picture pillar (a device invented by the Mission's first Recorder); Dr. Judd's old medicine chest; the much traveled rocking chair of Mother Thurston; and in the smaller room, a wardrobe full of the garb of other days, chiefly from the Lyman family; the Lyman cradle; and the Bond family bookcase with treasures from the old Kohala home.

Here are included the voyages of the navigators to the Pacific; the early little editions of Obookiah's life; some of the earliest sheets and books issued at the Mission press; many editions of the Hawaiian Bible; hymn books and school primers in Hawaiian, also priceless prints; many of the copperplate engravings made under the instruction of Rev.

In later times, this entrance was walled up and a gate and pathway made from King street extending to the veranda door of the reception room on the west side.

An adobe house, thatched with native "pili" grass was built in the front yard and was used for the accommodation of guests and sojourners.

But Mrs. Chamberlain possessed the skill to use this water in making, with scalded milk and Kona coffee, a drink so good that the guests praised it.

On the seaward side and toward Diamond Head were salt marshes in which rushes thrived and gave much support to Mission cows.

The height of the house made the lookout from the "mauka" windows, and from the guarded door which was on the seaward side, to be continually visited to see the incoming of sailing craft approaching the harbor or leaving it, and to learn the class of vessels, whether national, merchant, whaling, island or other, and to be made aware of the country represented by its flag, and other information to be obtained by means of a large spy-glass.

[4] A large "hau" tree with bright yellow flowers was early noticeable in the yard, and a "Pride of India" by the west corner of the house was an ornament to the place.