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History · Makena

Makena’s post office opened in 1900

Most of Makena was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: maps from 1954 on.

1900first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Travisthurston · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Makena began

When was Makena founded?

1900

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

2020 census: 196126 years
Founding year: the first Makena post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Makena’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Makena are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages5 hamlets and corners are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Makena’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Makena’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Makena had its own post office from 1900 to 1957.

Makena
1900–1957
19001960today
Hamlets and corners on the map
KanahenaKeoneʻōʻioMākenaOnauPaako

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story so far

Makena, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Makena yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Mākena is a census-designated place (CDP) in the extreme southwest of the island of Maui in Maui County, Hawaiʻi, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 196, up from 99 in 2010. Prior to 2010, the area was part of the Wailea-Makena census-designated place.

Its first post office opened in 1900. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 99 to 196 (+98%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Makena, 1900 to 1957

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1900Post officeThe Makena post office opens
  3. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1957Post officeThe Makena post office closes
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Makena on the map, 1954 to 1995

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Makena. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Makena on the 1954 USGS mapMakena on the 1983 USGS mapMakena on the 1995 USGS map1954Makena sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Makena.

Famous people

Famous people close to Makena

Nobody well known was born in Makena itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Isabella AbbottHawaiian-American professor of botany, ethnobot… · b. 1919
Danny OngaisRacecar driver · b. 1942
KeōpūolaniQueen consort of Hawaiʻi and the highest rankin… · b. 1778
E
Eddie AikauHawaiian surfer and lifeguard · b. 1946
K
Kurt SuzukiAmerican baseball player and manager · b. 1983
Shane VictorinoBaseball player from the United States · b. 1980
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

WaileaIts storyD

Questions about Makena’s history

What year was Makena founded?

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

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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.