KHS Store Museum Set to Reopen After Month-long Closure

H.N. Greenwell Store Museum will reopen after a month-long closure for annual exhibit maintenance and preservation projects.

Kona Historical Society used the temporary closure in February to conserve and clean artifacts and other exhibit items, provide a special training for its Museum Programs staff, as well as tackle projects that would have been disruptive to visitors.

Work included installation of copper gutters, solder holes in the old downspouts and patching a few holes in the roof of the store museum, which was built in 1875 and is on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Routine maintenance was conducted on the air conditioning system in the archive, located below the main floor for the store museum. The Society also removed invasive plants around the family house ruins.

These maintenance projects were funded by the State of Hawai‘i Grant in Aid.

The H.N. Greenwell Store Museum gives a telling glimpse into life in Kona before the turn of the 20th century and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s place in the global economy. The Society restored this historic general store to approximately 1891.

The H.N. Greenwell Store Museum, as well as the Society’s administrative offices, Portuguese Stone Oven, Kalukalu Pasture, and Native Forest Exhibit, are all located on a 3-acre site in the ahupuaʻa ili known as Kalukalu, in the city of Kealakekua.

Regular museum hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays. The historic site is located at the Society’s Kalukalu Headquarters, 81-6551 Māmalahoa Highway in Kealakekua.

For more information, call Kona Historical Society at 808-323-3222 or visit www.konahistorical.org.