Kawaiahaʻo Church

About

Kawaiahaʻo Church is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. The church, along with the Mission Houses, comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, which was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) in 1962. In 1966 it and all other NHLs were included in the first issuance of the National Register of Historic Places.

At one time the central church of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and chapel of the Hawaiian royal family, the church is popularly known as “Hawaiʻi's Westminster Abbey”. The name comes from the Hawaiian noun phrase ka wai a Haʻo (“the water of Haʻo”), because its location had a spring and freshwater pool of a High Chiefess named Haʻo. It has also been called hale pule lahui (“Great Stone Church”), the Hawaiian Tabernacle (luakini), the Mother Church, the Kingʻs Church, the Kingʻs Chapel, and the "Aliʻi Church".