{{Short description|Historic site in Hawaii County, Hawaii}} {{about||the museum in Reykjavík|Volcano House, Iceland|the mid-century modern house near Newberry Springs|Volcano House (California)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=February 2024}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Old Volcano House No. 42 | nrhp_type = | image = Volcano Art Center.jpg | caption = The 1877 building now houses an art gallery | nearest_city = Volcano, Hawaii | coordinates = {{coord|19.430221|-155.258207|format=dms|display=inline,title}} | locmapin = Hawaii | area = {{convert|104|ft}} by {{convert|110|ft}} | built = 1877 | architect = Multiple | architecture = | added = July 24, 1974 | refnum=74000293<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref> }} [[File:Volcano House 1866.jpg|thumb|220px|right|The 1866 structure where Mark Twain stayed]] '''Volcano House''' is the name of a series of historic hotels built at the edge of Kīlauea, within the grounds of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawai'i. The original 1877 building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now houses the '''Volcano Art Center'''. The hotel in use today was built in 1941 and expanded in 1961.
Between May 2018 and October 2018, the hotel and the Kīlauea summit area of the national park were closed to the public due to volcanic explosions and earthquakes.
==Early visitors== In ancient Hawaii the volcano was the place to make offerings to the fire goddess Pele. Archeological evidence shows activity for hundreds of years, including gathering of volcanic glass to use as cutting tools.<ref name="sand">{{cite web| url=http://www.nps.gov/havo/historyculture/upload/Keonehelelei.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120226001552/http://www.nps.gov/havo/historyculture/upload/Keonehelelei.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=February 26, 2012 |title=Keonehelelei – the falling sands |publisher=Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Archaeological Inventory of the Footprints Area |first=Jadelyn |last=Nakamura |year= 2003 }}</ref> Only a few rare eruptions such as the one in 1790 are explosive, and the northeast rim provides a relatively safe vantage point. The prevailing northeast trade winds and higher elevation cause poisonous gasses and lava to flow in the other direction. Rev. William Ellis describes camping in this area in his journal of his 1823 missionary tour with Asa Thurston.<ref>{{cite book| author-link=William Ellis (British missionary) |first=William |last=Ellis |title=A journal of a tour around Hawaii, the largest of the Sandwich Islands |year=1823 |publisher=Crocker and Brewster, New York, republished 2004, Mutual Publishing, Honolulu |url=https://archive.org/details/ajournalatourar00elligoog |isbn=1566476054 |oclc=63187153}}</ref>
An enterprising Hawaiian was reported to have set up a small thatched hut in the early 1840s to sell food to visitors, who by then included sightseers as well as explorers.<ref name="nps"/> Charles Wilkes camped in this area on the United States Exploring Expedition in 1840, on his way to Mauna Loa.<ref name="hitchcock"/> About 1846 a primitive one-room grass shelter was constructed at the rim of the Kīlauea crater by Benjamin Pitman, the first hotel to call itself "Volcano House". Sometimes visitors would show up after the long journey and nobody would be home.<ref name=sand/>
A more substantial wood-frame structure was built in 1866 with four bedrooms, parlor, and dining room. Mark Twain stayed here, and wrote about his visit in the book ''Roughing It''.<ref name="Roughing It">{{cite book |chapter-url=http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/TEIgeneral/view?docId=wright%2FVAC6082&brand=wright&field1=text&text1=%22Volcano+House%22&submit=Search&hit.rank=1#1 |title=Roughing It |author-link=Mark Twain |first=Mark |last=Twain |year=1872 |pages=532–537 |oclc=187124968 |chapter=LXXIV |location=Hartford, CT |publisher=American Pub. Co}}</ref>
==The 1877 structure== In 1876 George W. C. Jones bought out the other partners in the business and hired William H. Lentz to construct a longer-lasting structure, and manage the hotel.<ref name="nps"/> A wood-sided building about {{convert|104|x|110|ft}} was built in 1877. It included six guest rooms, two for the manager's family, and a dining room. Lumber for rafters and posts were harvested from local forests of naio (''Myoporum sandwicense'') and {{okina}}ōhi{{okina}}a lehua (''Metrosideros polymorpha'').<ref name="focus">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=74000293}}|title=Old Volcano House No. 42 nomination form|last=Apple|first=Russell A.|year=1972|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> Peter Lee built a hotel at the coast in Punalu{{okina}}u to the west, and a road across the Ka{{okina}}ū Desert to bring visitors. He also built a competing hotel at the Kīlauea rim called the Crater House Hotel.<ref name="sand"/> From 1883 to 1885 it was owned by the Oliver T. Shipman family.<ref name="hitchcock">{{cite book |title=Hawaii and its volcanoes |author-link= Charles Henry Hitchcock |first=Charles Henry |last=Hitchcock |url=https://archive.org/details/hawaiianditsvol01hitcgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/hawaiianditsvol01hitcgoog/page/n376 261] |location=Honolulu, HI |publisher=The Hawaiian Gazette Co. |year=1911 |oclc=259093262 |edition=2nd}}</ref>
In 1891, a group led by Honolulu businessman and politician Lorrin A. Thurston (grandson of 1820s missionaries Asa and Lucy Goodale Thurston) acquired the Volcano House and Peter Lee's hotels. The business was so successful that a two-story addition became the main part of the hotel, adding 10 – 12 additional guest rooms, an observation tower, and a larger dining hall, using the 1877 structure as a wing.<ref name="nps">{{cite journal |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hawaii-notes/vol5-2d.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217182553/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hawaii-notes/vol5-2d.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 17, 2007 |title=The Volcano House |year=1953 |volume=5 |issue=2 |publisher=National Park Service |journal= Hawaii Nature Notes}}</ref> Thurston commissioned a cyclorama of Kīlauea which he displayed in his travels to the mainland, including the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hawaiian Kingdom 1874–1893, the Kalakaua Dynastism |author-link=Ralph S. Kuykendall |first=Ralph S. |last=Kuykendall |year=1967 |isbn=9780870224331 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |page=115 |oclc=462275213}}</ref> In 1894 a four-horse stagecoach reduced the travel time from Hilo from two days to six hours.
George Lycurgus bought the hotel in 1895 and was associated with it for the next 65 years. The Hawaii Consolidated Railway line to Glenwood opened in 1901, bringing more visitors. Author Jack London stayed in 1907.<ref>{{cite book |title=Jack London and Hawaii |author-link=Charmian London |first=Charmian |last=London |publisher=Mills & Boon |year=1918 |url=https://archive.org/details/jacklondonandha00londgoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/jacklondonandha00londgoog/page/n241 223] |oclc=612636834}}</ref> In 1912, geologist Thomas Jaggar built a scientific observatory adjacent to the porch, used until 1961 by the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. The instruments were housed in an underground vault with massive concrete walls, excavated by laborers from the nearby prison.<ref name="vault">{{cite web |first=Russell A. |last=Apple |url={{NRHP url|id=74000292}} |title=Whitney Seismograph Vault #29 nomination form |work=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |year=1972 }}</ref>
thumb|left|700px|The hotel circa 1912 – center built in 1891 and the wing on the right is the 1877 structure thumb|An advertisement in the August 14, 1912 issue of the San Francisco Call
After ten years of lobbying by Thurston, a National Park was established in 1916.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.nps.gov/havo/forkids/park-history.htm | archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805164759/http://www.nps.gov/havo/forkids/park-history.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=August 5, 2012 |title=History of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park |first=Dwight |last=Hamilton |publisher=National Park Service Hawaii Volcanoes web site |access-date=June 26, 2009 }}</ref> In 1921, Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company bought the property with plans for another expansion. A large two-story wing took the place of the 1877 structure, which was literally sawn off and relocated back from the cliff to be used as employee quarters. Some of the building materials came from the dismantled Crater House Hotel just outside the park. In 1932, a decline in eruptions and the Great Depression allowed Lycurgus to buy it back for only $300.<ref name="nps"/>
In 1972 a dormitory for employees was built, and the vacant 1877 structure started to deteriorate.<ref name=focus/> The 1877 building is state historic site 10-52-5508,<ref name="reghaw.pdf">{{cite web |title=National and State Register of Historic Places |url=http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/hpd/register/reghaw.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528025816/http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/hpd/register/reghaw.pdf |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |url-status=dead |date=June 5, 2009 |first=Lawrence |last=Agcaoili |website=State Historic Preservation |publisher=State of Hawaii |location=Kapolei, HI}}</ref> and added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1974, as site 74000293.<ref name="nris"/> It was refurbished in the late 1970s and now houses the Volcano Art Center Gallery.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://volcanoartcenter.org/rain-forest/history/|title=History {{!}} Volcano Art Center|website=volcanoartcenter.org|language=en-US|access-date=January 25, 2018}}</ref>
[[File:View from Volcano House Hotel.jpg|thumb|220px|Halemaʻumaʻu seen from Volcano House.]]
==The modern hotel== The 115-room building burned to the ground from a kitchen fire on February 11, 1940.<ref name=official/> The 1877 structure was used again for guests while the new hotel was planned. Lycurgus visited Washington, D.C. to convince powerful friends (many, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt had stayed as guests) to allow him to build an even more elegant hotel on the site of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. A separate visitor center farther back from the rim was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.<ref name=buildings>{{cite web| url=https://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/observatory/hvo_history_bldgs.html |title=Buildings and Facilities |access-date=June 26, 2009 |publisher=United States Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory}}</ref> By November 1941 a new building designed by Charles William Dickey (1871–1942)<ref>{{cite journal| first=J. Meredith |last=Neil |title=The Architecture of C. W. Dickey in Hawaii |year=1975 |hdl = 10524/210 |journal=Hawaiian Journal of History| publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society |volume=9}}</ref> was opened southeast of the original site, at coordinates {{coord|19|25|42|N|155|15|29|W| type:landmark_region:US-HI| display=inline}}. A wing with larger rooms was added in 1958 – 1961, for a total of 42 rooms. The facility also includes a dining room, snack bar, art gallery, and gift shop. Volcano House remains the only public hotel within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
From 1977 to 1986, Volcano House was managed by Sheraton Hotels. From 1986 to 2008 it was owned and operated by Ken Direction Corporation of Hilo.<ref name="official">{{cite web|url=http://www.volcanohousehotel.com/History.htm|title=History|website=Volcano House Hotel|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828043211/http://www.volcanohousehotel.com/History.htm|archive-date=August 28, 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Current status== On May 10, 2018, the hotel and the surrounding Kīlauea summit area of the national park was closed to the public as a result of then-ongoing volcanic explosions and earthquakes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/05/28/breaking-news/volcano-park-closed-for-record-stretch-due-to-kilauea-eruption/|title = Volcano park closed for record stretch due to Kilauea eruption|date = May 28, 2018}}</ref> The hotel reopened in late October 2018.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/travel/hawaii/la-tr-hawaii-volcano-house-near-kilauea-reopens-20181026-story.html|title=Hawaii's Kilauea has stopped spewing lava. Nearby Volcano House reopens to visitors after five-month shutdown|date=October 26, 2018}}</ref>
===Recent history=== In April 2008 the hotel had to be evacuated several times due to sulfur dioxide fumes from an eruption in Halemaʻumaʻu.<ref name="Eans Today 2008">{{cite web | last1=Eans | first1=Kevin | title=2,000 forced from Hawaii volcano park | website=USATODAY.com | date=April 8, 2008 | url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2008-04-08-hawaii-volcano_N.htm | access-date=January 25, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kitv.com/r/15972877/detail.html|title=Gas Levels Close Volcano Park|date=April 23, 2008|website=KITV Honolulu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308041455/http://www.kitv.com/r/15972877/detail.html|archive-date=March 8, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Ken Corporation's concession expired at the end of 2008, and the National Park Service undertook a search for a new concessionaire.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/09/15/smallb2.html?page=3|title=Plastic bags, politics, telescopes make news on the Big Island|last=Wilson|first=Jim|date=September 14, 2008|website=Pacific Business News|page=3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150128223756/http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2008/09/15/smallb2.html?page=3|archive-date=January 28, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Effective January 1, 2010, Volcano House was closed temporarily for renovations.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: Volcano House – Official Site |url= http://www.volcanohousehotel.com/ |work= web site |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091212043241/http://www.volcanohousehotel.com/ |archive-date=December 12, 2009}}</ref> Initially the Park Service hoped to have the new concessionaire in place and the hotel reopened by January 1, 2011.<ref name="Pacific Business News 2010">{{cite web | title=Scoops: Who's moving, buying, opening, changing, winning | website=Pacific Business News | date=February 1, 2010 | url=https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/02/01/story8.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026094814/https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2010/02/01/story8.html | archive-date=October 26, 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In April 2012, Hawai'i Volcanoes Lodge Company, a partnership between Ortega National Parks (later renamed ExplorUS) and Aqua Hotels and Resorts, became the new concessioner.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/04/iconic-hotel-hawaii-volcanoes-national-park-back-track9710|title=Iconic Hotel At Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Back On Track {{!}} National Parks Traveler|website=www.nationalparkstraveler.com|access-date=January 25, 2018}}</ref> The gift shop and Namakani Paio cabins and campground opened shortly thereafter. Work on the rest of the building began in January 2013. The hotel and restaurant completed renovations and both the hotel and the restaurant opened for business in June 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |title= Now Open: Hawaii Volcano House: Official Hotel Website |url= http://www.hawaiivolcanohouse.com/ |work= web site |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130511173951/http://www.hawaiivolcanohouse.com/ |archive-date=May 11, 2013}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |last1=Nordhoff |first1=Charles |author-link1=Charles Nordhoff (journalist) |first2=Jules |last2=Rémy |author-link2=Jules Rémy |first3=William Tufts |last3=Brigham |author-link3=William Tufts Brigham |location=London |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle |year=1874 |title=Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands |oclc=919779516 }} * ''The Story of The Volcano House'', Gunder Einer Olson 2012.
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}} * [http://www.hawaiivolcanohouse.com/ Official Website]
{{NRHP in Hawaii Volcanoes NP}} {{Hawaiian volcanism}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1877 establishments in Hawaii Category:Art museums and galleries in Hawaii Category:Buildings and structures in Hawaii County, Hawaii Category:Hawaiian architecture Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1877 Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1941 Category:Hotel buildings completed in 1961 Category:Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Category:Hotels established in 1877 Category:Hotels in Hawaii Category:Kīlauea Category:National Register of Historic Places in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Category:Tourist attractions in Hawaii County, Hawaii