Wai‘oli Mission House: Boys' Dormitory

The Boys' Dormitory. The large door leads out to the front balcony, from which they could see ships coming into the bay. The post in the center is a recent addition to fix a sagging cieling.

"They called this room the crow’s nest," Roger explains. "You know what a crow’s nest is: they take the crow to the top of the ship, let him go and follow the crow to land. You could see Hanalei Bay, you could see Princeville, you could see Waikoko—this was beachfront property back then. And when they saw a ship coming in, they would send the boys down there and retrieve the captain. Abner would preach to him and Lucy would make butter for extra money. And the boys could work them for whale stories.

The Medicine Cabinet.

"Abner was a stickler for keeping things in proper working order. During their stay, the foundation of the house shifted, and the parlor cieling began to sag. Putting a post in the middle of the parlor wouldn't work, so they put it up here. It's a mast of an old ship, and they reinforced the attic beams and dovetailed it into the main support. The put a shank down the middle of the post with a threaded metal wheel. They dovetailed the bottom into the main support beam that goes through the center of the bedroom, and when they turned the wheel, it brought the floor up. And the repair to the home was properly done.

"The library medicine cabinet was Alexander’s, so when he left for Maui he had to leave it here because he left right off the beach and it was too big and bulky. And once he left, he never came back. There would have been medicine in these drawers: salts from the dry cave in Hā‘ena, castor oil, cod liver oil, botanicals, what have you.

"But these were the Wilcoxes’ books. The granddaughters wrote the dates and the titles so the guests could read them without handling them. So there’s Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin written by himself, volumes one and two. Pilgrim’s Progress and seamen’s hymns and bibles in different languages. There’s Shakespeare down here. There’s Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea over here. But most of its all theology, and history and education. Encyclopedias. There’s a few children’s readers."

View of the boy's dormitory, looking through into Edward's room.

Cod Liver Oil Bottles.

"These are cod liver oil bottles. It’s just missing a cork, I had a pharmacist from back East come through the house, he said those are the original ones. You can tell by the thickness of the glass and the color of the glass."

"And they had another bed there, they slept two to a bed. Abner had to put a board between them so they wouldn’t badger each other at night. That was called a bundling board. It’s something else that missionaries brought around the Horn with them.

"There's a door in here, and if you open up this you can go up into the attic. I go up there and change the smoke alarms. There are beams up there that are Roman-numeraled and dove-tailed in Boston. They came around the Horn and they just matched the Roman numerals up. And it goes through the length of both rooms. It’s pine too, so there’s no wood around here that sort."

Pacific Worlds > Hā‘ena, Kaua‘i > Visitors > Missionaries