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History · Hanalei

Hanalei’s post office opened in 1900, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 4 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1883 on.

1900first post office
5on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Hanalei’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Hanalei began

When was Hanalei founded?

1900

The Hanalei post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 444126 years
Founding year: the first Hanalei post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Hanalei’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Landmarks on the Register5 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

5 historic places in Hanalei

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
5
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
10
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Waioli Mission District
Waioli Mission District, built 1973Hanalei PierHanalei Elementary SchoolWilcox, Albert Spencer, Beach House
BuildingsDistrictsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Bungalow1
Folk Victorian1
Waioli Mission DistrictBuilt 1973
Hanalei PierStructure
Haraguchi Rice MillStructure
Hanalei Elementary SchoolBungalow
Wilcox, Albert Spencer, Beach HouseFolk Victorian

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Hanalei came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Hanalei.

Read it all →

Hanalei was densely populated in ancient times, boasting a thriving indigenous community that produced an abundance of food from both terrestrial and marine sources. The earliest inhabitants of Hanalei cultivated substantial quantities of taro, bananas, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, yams, and coconuts. With the arrival of foreigners in Hawaii, new agricultural endeavors were introduced. During the first half of the 19th century, Hanalei became a significant supplier of various crops, including mulberry leaves, coffee, tobacco, cotton, rice, sugarcane, citrus fruits, peaches, pineapples, bananas, dates, tamarinds, guava, potatoes, plantains, cabbage, lettuce, and other agricultural products.

ChaptersHawaiian RoyaltyImperial Russia1900s

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Hanalei, 1883 to 1973

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1883In the archiveHanalei (2), photograph by Brother Bertram
  3. 20th century
  4. 1900Post officeThe Hanalei post office opens
  5. 1973BuiltWaioli Mission District is built
By decade

Hanalei, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s6 items
Hanalei (2), photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei (2), photograph by Brother BertramHanalei Roman Catholic Mission Premises (1), photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei Roman Catholic Mission Premises (1), photogra…Hanalei Roman Catholic Mission Premises (2), photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei Roman Catholic Mission Premises (2), photogra…Hanalei, Kauai (1), photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei, Kauai (1), photograph by Brother BertramHanalei, Kauai (2), photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei, Kauai (2), photograph by Brother BertramHanalei, sec7 no20 0001, photograph by Brother Bertram1883Hanalei, sec7 no20 0001, photograph by Brother Bertram
1890s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Hanalei (2), photograph by Brother Bertram
Retake this viewHanalei (2), photograph by Brother Bertram, 1883

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hanalei’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Hanalei’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHanalei (2), photograph by Brother Bert…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Princeville1 historic placeC

Questions about Hanalei’s history

What year was Hanalei founded?

The Hanalei post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Hanalei?

5 listings: 2 buildings, 1 historic district, the Waioli Mission District, with 4 contributing buildings, and 2 structures. 10 historic buildings in all.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.