Island History

In January of 1894, former Governor of Kaua‘i William Hyde Rice had an authentic Hawaiian grass house built near his residence on his property in Lihu‘e, which adjoined Rice Street from Waa Road to Kalena Street.

Rice’s grass house was first put to use later in the month as the setting of a luau given by Mr. and Mrs. Rice in honor of the visiting Prince David Kawananakoa.

And, when the 389-ton interisland steamer C. R. Bishop went aground at Nawiliwili on Jan. 31, 1894, some of its survivors were temporarily housed there.

But by 1925, after having been the setting for numerous incidents over 31 years, the grass house had fallen into disrepair and needed fixing.

Mr. Rice had died the previous year, 1924, so Mrs. Rice set about finding Hawaiians who possessed the high level of craftsmanship required to build or repair an old-time Hawaiian grass house, and who would be willing to accept a nominal fee.

However, at that time, not only were there few Hawaiians knowledgeable of repairing the house with the expertise with which it had been built, but the payment they expected was more than Mrs. Rice was willing to pay. For example, a medium-sized grass house then recently built on Oahu cost $1,800 — over $22,000 in 2008 dollars — and it was for this reason that she regretfully chose to raze her husband’s house.

At least as late as the 1950s, there were still a handful of Hawaiians on Kaua‘i who’d retained the age-old know-how needed to build a traditional grass house with the identical materials and by same methods as was done in old Hawai‘i.

One of them, Franklin Mano Kelekoma, built a genuine grass house with helpers in 1953 inside the walls of Wailua’s Holoholoku Heiau.