At Kona Historical Society, the staff oversees two sites listed on State and National Registries of Historic Places.

The Kona Coffee Living History Farm is one of those sites.

The second site is the H.N. Greenwell Store Museum, located at our Kalukalu headquarters in Kealakekua.

On both sites, and through outreach and programs conducted throughout the island and the rest of Hawaii, they utilize the relationships that they have with community members, family, neighbors and friends, and they draw upon the extensive material preserved in the collections that are stewarded in archives to create experiences for patrons that capture Kona’s special culture, spirit, and history.

Executive Director Dance Aoki added, “We conduct living history programs, curate exhibits, host a lecture series, publish books, and provide educational programming for students, along with countless other activities throughout the year. Kona’s history is also Hawaii’s history, and many of the significant people in the history of Hawaii have a connection to Kona. Many of the stories we tell revolve around three agricultural stories that shape the modern life of our community today. Ranching, coffee, and the fertile, resilient field systems that grew `ulu and other crops in abundance. At Kona Historical Society we are so fortunate to be able to share the human experience of this history. What we have on record, preserved through photographs, historical documents, oral histories and other artifacts or objects, we interpret and share with our patrons today in ways they’ll never forget.”



The Farm captures a unique community story. It illustrates the values, traditions, and daily life of Kona’s multicultural coffee pioneers.

The stories shared here help all of us understand the foundation of the Kona we know today.

konahistorical.org

