Haiku Mill

The Haidu Mill or Haʻikū Sugar Mill was a processing factory for sugarcane from 1861 to 1879 on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

Haiku Mill
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Hawaiʻi Register of Historic Places
Haiku Mill in Maui, Hawaii (1895 painting)
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Location	250 Haiku Road, Haʻikū, Maui, Hawaii
Coordinates	20°55′32″N 156°19′44″W
Area	1.9 acres (0.77 ha)
Built	1861
Architect	D.M. Weston
NRHP reference No.	86000189[1]
HRHP No.	50-50-06-01622[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 6, 1986
Designated HRHP	February 6, 1986

History

The northeastern coast of Maui has a small village named Haʻi kū which literally means "sharp break" in the Hawaiian language.^[3]

The Haiku Sugar Company was chartered on November 20, 1858 by the Kingdom of Hawaii. It was one of the first ten companies to go into the sugar business in the Hawaiian Islands. The investors, the Castle & Cooke partnership, contracted with Isaac Adams of Boston and D. M. Weston for a milling machine and boiling house with total cost of US$12,000. The first crop was processed in December 1861. In 1871 Samuel T. Alexander became manager of the mill. He formed Alexander & Baldwin with his partner Henry Perrine Baldwin, and organized an irrigation system from 1876 to 1878 that allowed more steady crops to be grown in more leeward areas of the island. As a result, Haiku Mill was abandoned in 1879.^[4]

In 1881 Kahului railroad allowed cane to be carried to larger mills near the town of Kahului. In 1905 the Haiku plantation merged with another to become Maui Agricultural Company, and later became the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company division of Alexander & Baldwin with one remaining mill at Puʻunene. The Haʻikū area later became a pineapple plantation. The former cannery at 810 Haiku Road is now a shopping center called the Haiku Marketplace.^[5]

Only the walls of the mill were left standing when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 6, 1986 as site 86000189, listed as "Haiku Mill". It is state historic site 50-046-1622.^[6]

The mill was purchased and restored by Sylvia Hamilton-Kerr and as of 2016 was open for tourism.^[7]

See also

• Sugar plantations in Hawaii

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. "Historic Register Counts". Hawai'i State Historic Preservation Division. State of Hawaii. February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
3. Pukui and Elbert (2004). "lookup of haiku". on Place Names of Hawai'i. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
4. Robert M. Kiger (May 27, 1985). "Haiku Mill nomination form". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
5. "Visit us in Haiku". web site. Kopa Haiku. Retrieved 2010-01-18.^{[permanent dead link]}
6. "National and State Register of Historic Places on Maui" (PDF). web site. Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources. June 2009. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
7. "4 splendid tours through Maui's sugar history". Hawaii Magazine. October 13, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2021.