{{Short description|Historic church and cemetery in Hawaii, United States}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox NRHP | name = Waiola Church and Cemetery | nrhp_type = cp | nocat = yes | image = Maui-Lahaina-WaiolaChurch-up.JPG | image_size = 250px | caption = Waiola Church in 2010 | location = 535 Waineʻe street<br />Lahaina, Hawaii | locmapin = United States Lahaina#United States Maui#Hawaii | coordinates = {{coord |20|52|10.05|N|156|40|24.12|W| type:landmark_region:US-HI |display=inline,title}} | area = {{convert|2.54|acre}} | built = 1832, rebuilt 1954 | architect = | architecture = | mpsub = | partof = Lahaina Historic District | partof_refnum = 66000302<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2008a}}</ref> | demolished = 1894, 2023 }}
'''Waiola Church''' in Lāhainā is the site of a historic mission established in 1823 on the island of Maui in Hawaiʻi. Originally called '''Waineʻe Church''' until 1953, the graveyard, which retains the original name of Waineʻe Cemetery, is the final resting place for aliʻi and early members of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Since first being established, the many iterations of the mission have been susceptible to destruction by wind and fire. One instance took place in 1894, when the church was destroyed by the groundskeeper accidentally losing control of a rubbish fire. It was subsequently rebuilt only to be destroyed twice more and reconstructed.<ref name="WCUCC">{{cite web |url=https://waiolachurch.org/history |title=Waiola Church History |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref> The longest standing church edifice, having been built in 1953, was lost to the 2023 Hawaii wildfires.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Venkatraman |first=Sakshi |date=August 10, 2023 |title=After Hawaii fires scorch historic church and school, Lahaina mourns loss of culture |work=NBC |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/hawaii-fires-scorch-historic-church-school-lahaina-mourns-loss-culture-rcna99198 |access-date=August 13, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Ebrahimji |first=Alisha |date=August 10, 2023 |title=One of the largest banyan trees in the US and a 200-year-old church are among the beloved landmarks imperiled by Maui's wildfires |work=[CNN] |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/10/us/lahaina-fires-damage-banyan-tree/index.html |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Neog |first=Anupal Sraban |date=August 11, 2023 |title=How much of Lahaina is burned down? Historic 200-year-old Waiola Church and more succumb to raging wildfires in Maui |work=SKPOP |url=https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/news-how-much-lahaina-burned-down-historic-200-year-old-waiola-church-succumb-raging-wildfires-maui |access-date=August 14, 2023}}</ref>
== History == The first mission to Maui was invited to Lāhainā by Queen Keōpūolani, the most sacred wife of King Kamehameha I and was led by Reverend William Richards (1793–1847) and Reverend Charles Stewart in 1823.<ref name="focus">{{cite web |url= {{NHLS url|id=66000302}} |title= Lahaina Historic District National Historical Landmark update |author= Russell A. Apple |date=December 21, 1973 |access-date=2009-10-29 }}</ref> For a few years, temporary structures along the beach were used for teaching and service. In 1828, island Governor Hoapili supported the building of a stone and wood structure. The Christian church was built adjacent to a pond, Loko o Mokuhinia, surrounding an island called Mokuʻula, which was sacred to traditional Hawaiian religion and the residence of the king. The first stone building was dedicated on March 4, 1832 and was initially named "Ebenezer" but was more commonly referred to as Waineʻe Church.<ref name="focus" />
Rev. Ephraim Spaulding (1802–1840), joined with his wife Juliet Brooks (1810–1898), ministered at Waiola Church from 1832 to 1836.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jrd/j__haw.htm |title=Hawaiian Missionaries |author=James R. Davis |work=Rootsweb.Ancestry.com |access-date=2009-10-29 }}</ref> Rev. Dwight Baldwin transferred here in 1836, and served as physician, even though trained in theology. The Baldwins rebuilt the house of the Spauldings, which was kept in the family until 1967 when it was made into a museum.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lahainarestoration.org/baldwin.html |title=Baldwin House |publisher=Lahaina Restoration Foundation |work=web site |access-date=2009-10-29 |archive-date=March 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303194832/http://lahainarestoration.org/baldwin.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
''Waineʻe'' (moving water) served as the church for the Hawaiian royal family during the time when Lahaina was the Kingdom's capital, from 1820 through the mid-1840s. Several members of the royal family who were initially buried near Halekamani (where the King Kamehameha III Elementary School was erected in 1913) and on Mokuʻula were reburied in 1884 in the cemetery (the first Christian cemetery in the state). A notable aspect of the cemetery is that the missionaries and Native Hawaiians were buried side by side.<ref name="focus" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Kam|first=Ralph Thomas|title=Death Rites and Hawaiian Royalty: Funerary Practices in the Kamehameha and Kalakaua Dynasties, 1819–1953|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4kvanAAACAAJ|year=2017|publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers|location=S. I.|isbn=978-1-4766-6846-8|oclc=966566652|pages=180}}</ref>
Another building called ''Hale Halewai'' (meeting house) was built a few blocks to the northwest around the same time. In 1855, the congregation built a larger building, calling it ''Aloha Hale'' (aloha house), completed in 1858. It was built to celebrate how Baldwin had spared the population of Maui from the smallpox epidemic of 1853. In 1859, the royal government added benches and desks, and used it as a school. In 1862, the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii used it temporarily.<ref name="habs">{{cite web |url= http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/hi/hi0000/hi0017/data/hi0017.pdf |title=Hale Aloha Church |work=Historic American Buildings Survey |author=Cecilia J. Gorokhoff |date=September 1966 |publisher=US Library of Congress |access-date=2009-10-29 }}</ref>
In 1894, a fire destroyed the church. A new one was built from donations by Henry Perrine Baldwin, son of the original Baldwin pastor. In the 1950s, a wind storm knocked down the bell tower of Hale Aloha and damaged the Waineʻe Church. A modern church structure was finished in 1953, when the name was changed to ''Waiola'' (living water). The bell from the Hale Aloha tower was salvaged for the new church.<ref>{{cite web |title=Restorations |url=http://www.schulzarchitect.com/hawaii_architects.htm |publisher=Uwe Schulz, Architect AIA & Associates |access-date=2009-10-29 |archive-date=February 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201000947/http://www.schulzarchitect.com/hawaii_architects.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Hale Aloha was remodeled in 1908, but fell into disrepair, and was missing its roof a floor in 1973 when a restoration was begun by the Lahaina Restoration Foundation. The structure was rebuilt by 1985, and stonework by 1992. A bell tower that was built in 1910 was also restored.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.lahainarestoration.org/halealoha.html |title=Hale Aloha |publisher=Lahaina Restoration Foundation |work=web site |access-date=2009-10-29 }}</ref> A new bell was installed in the Hale Aloha tower in 2009.<ref>{{cite news |title= Hale Aloha bells toll again: It tolls for thee, Lahaina residents, for the first time in six decades |newspaper= The Maui News |date= March 11, 2009 |author= Lee Imada |url= http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/515912.html |access-date= 2010-01-20 }}</ref> Hale Aloha is located on 600 Luakini Street.
In August 2023, the church building was lost to the 2023 Hawaii wildfires.<ref name="Maui News (Aug. 9)">{{cite news |last1=Tanji |first1=Melissa |last2=Thayer |first2=Matthew |title=Maui on fire |url=https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2023/08/maui-on-fire/ |work=The Maui News |date=August 9, 2023 |access-date=August 10, 2023 |archive-date=August 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230809180937/https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2023/08/maui-on-fire/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
== Description == The church and Hale Aloha are two contributing properties of the Lahaina Historic District, designated a National Historic Landmark District on December 29, 1962.<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web| url= http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=193&ResourceType=District | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070301173858/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=193&ResourceType=District | url-status= dead | archive-date= March 1, 2007 |title=Lahaina Historic District |access-date=2009-10-29 |work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>
The congregation is pastored by licensed minister Kahu Anela Rosa. Normal Sunday services have been suspended during the Lāhainā recovery, but the church has reinstated a first Sunday worship with communion which is held at 10:00 a.m. Services are a mixture of Hawaiian and English language and song.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.waiolachurch.org/History.htm |title=Waiʻola Church |author=Kawai Stanich |year=2008 |access-date=2009-10-29 |archive-date=April 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422130553/http://www.waiolachurch.org/History.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The congregation is affiliated with the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hcucc.org/WaiolaChurch/tabid/16710/Default.aspx |title=Waiola Church |publisher=Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ |access-date=2009-10-29 |archive-date=September 6, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100906104449/http://hcucc.org/WaiolaChurch/tabid/16710/Default.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Burials in the cemetery == The tombstones in the cemetery, with death dates: *Keōpūolani, September 16, 1823{{sfn|Kam|2017|pages=21–25}}<ref name="UHSB 2023-08-11">{{Cite news <!--|last=News |first=U. H.--> |date=2023-08-11 |title=Remains of prominent aliʻi, lost 'royal island' part of Lāhainā |url=https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2023/08/11/remains-of-prominent-alii-part-of-lahaina/ |access-date=2023-08-13 |work=University of Hawaiʻi System News |language=en-US}}</ref> *Kaumualiʻi, May 26, 1824{{r|UHSB 2023-08-11}} (1825 on monument){{sfn|Kam|2017|pages=28–31}} *Nāhiʻenaʻena, December 30, 1836{{r|UHSB 2023-08-11}}{{sfn|Kam|2017|pages=41–44}} *Kuini Liliha, August 25, 1839{{sfn|Kam|2017|pages=46–47}} *Ulumāheihei Hoapili, also known as Hoapili, January 3, 1840{{sfn|Kam|2017|page=47}} *Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, also known as Hoapili Wahine, January 16, 1842{{sfn|Kam|2017|page=48}} *Kekauʻōnohi, granddaughter of Kamehameha I, 2 June 1847{{sfn|Kam|2017|pages=55–56}} *William Richards, November 7, 1847
== Gallery == <gallery> File:Wainee Church, ambrotype, c. 1855.jpg|Earliest photograph of Waineʻe Church File:Ruins of Wainee Church, Lahaina, photograph by Brother Bertram.jpg|The ruins of Waineʻe Church after the 1894 fire File:Maui-Lahaina-WaiolaCemetery-Kaumualii.JPG|Tombstone for Kaumualiʻi File:Maui-Lahaina-Waiola-Hawaiianroyalgravestone.JPG|Tombstone for Keōpūolani, Nāhiʻenaʻena, Liliha, Ulumāheihei, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, Kekauʻōnohi File:Maui-Lahaina-Waiola-bricktomb.JPG|Brick grave marker File:Maui-Lahaina-Waiola-grave&mtns.JPG|Mountain view from cemetery </gallery>
== References == {{reflist}}
{{Christianity in Hawaii}} {{Hawaiian royal sites}} {{NRHP in Maui, Hawaii}}
Category:Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Category:United Church of Christ churches in Hawaii Category:Religious buildings and structures in Maui County, Hawaii Category:Churches completed in 1832 Category:Churches completed in 1953 Category:Historic district contributing properties in Hawaii Category:Buildings and structures in Lahaina, Hawaii Category:1823 establishments in Hawaii Category:National Register of Historic Places in Maui County, Hawaii Category:Burial sites of Hawaiian royal houses Category:Church fires in the United States Category:Destroyed churches in the United States Category:Buildings and structures destroyed by the 2023 Hawaii wildfires