Honokaa Town

Walk down Mamane Street, the heart of Honokaa Town, and step back into the late 19th and early 20th century. Honokaa's single-wall, wooden plantation-era buildings are as much a symbol of Hawaii to local people as Diamond Head is to tourists. The commercial buildings have their emblematic false fronts and totan (corrugated iron) cladding. They contained, and still contain, mom-and-pop businesses that were founded upon personal relationships, required the labor of whole families, and provided for the education of the next generation. The small size of the town encouraged cross-pollination of peoples. Sugar workers, paniolos (cowboys), coffee farmers, and homesteaders all came to Honokaa.

Laura Ruby is the editor of Mö'ili'ili--The Life of a Community, the 2008 recipient of the Hawaii Individual Artist Fellowship (the highest honor in the visual arts), the 2015 Living Treasures of Hawaii Award, and the creator of Site of Passage--Chinatown, a large commissioned site-specific sculpture. She taught art and honors at the University of Hawaii for 34 years. Together with Ross W. Stephenson, they coauthored Honolulu Town. Ross was the former historian for the Hawaii State Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and was keeper of the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. He holds both his doctorate and master's in urban planning focusing on the development history of Honolulu.