Moanalua Gardens is a privately owned public park in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. The park is the site of the Kamehameha V Cottage which used to be the home of Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, who would later become King

Kamehameha V Kamehameha V (Lota Kapuāiwa Kalanimakua Aliʻiōlani Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui; December 11, 1830 – December 11, 1872), reigned as the fifth monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipaʻa": i ...

. It is also the site of the annual Prince Lot Hula Festival, and the home of a large monkeypod tree that is known in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as the Hitachi tree.

The gardens

The gardens are located just off

Interstate H-201 Interstate H-201 (H-201) is the only auxiliary Interstate Highway located outside the Contiguous United States, serving the island of O‘ahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The H-201 designation is also known as the Moanalua Freeway. The loop rout ...

in the

Moanalua Moanalua is a valley, a stream, an ahupuaa, and a residential neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. The valley extends inland from behind Āliapaakai crater (Salt Lake) to the crest of the Koʻolau Range. Neighboring areas include Māpunapuna and S ...

district near

Tripler Army Medical Center Tripler Army Medical Center (TAMC) is a major United States Department of Defense medical facility administered by the United States Army in the state of Hawaii. It is the tertiary care hospital in the Pacific Rim, serving local active and retire ...

at . Once owned and operated by the estate of local businessman and landowner

Samuel Mills Damon Samuel Mills Damon (March 13, 1845 – July 1, 1924) was a businessman and politician in the Kingdom of Hawaii, through the Republic of Hawaii and into the Territory of Hawaii. Life Damon was born in Honolulu on March 13, 1845. His father was ...

(1841–1924), the garden was bought by Kaimana Ventures, whose president John Philip Damon is a great-grandson of Samuel Damon.

Kamehameha V Cottage

The Kamehameha V Cottage, located at the western end of the garden, was originally built in the 1850s by Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, who would later become King

. The three separate units of the cottage (a kitchen and dining room unit, a living room/bedroom unit, and an entertainment unit) are connected via a series of roofed porches. Princess

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Bernice Pauahi Bishop KGCOK RoK (December 19, 1831 – October 16, 1884), born Bernice Pauahi Pākī, was an '' alii'' (noble) of the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Hawaii and a well known philanthropist. At her death, her estate was the la ...

willed the cottage, along with the rest of the '' ahupuaa'' (traditional land division) of

to Damon when she died in 1884. Damon renovated the cottage and used it as a residence. The cottage was moved to its present location in 1960; it had been in three locations in Moanalua before then.

Hitachi tree

The Hitachi tree, a large monkeypod tree with a distinctive umbrella-shaped canopy, grows in the middle of a grassy area in the middle of the park. The tree is registered as an exceptional tree by the City and County of Honolulu and cannot be removed or destroyed without city council approval. Japanese electronics manufacturer

Hitachi, Ltd. () is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...

has used the tree as a corporate symbol since 1973. An agreement between the Damon Estate and Hitachi gave Hitachi exclusive worldwide rights to use the tree's image for promotional purposes in exchange for annual payments of US$20,000. The status of the agreement was called into question when the Damon Estate was dissolved after the last remaining grandchild died in 2004. Hitachi negotiated with the new owner and reached an agreement with Kaimana Ventures in December 2006 where Hitachi would pay US$400,000 annually for promotional rights until 2016. The revenue from Hitachi is expected to only partially defray the US$600,000 annual expenses for the park.

References

External links

{{Commons
Moanalua Gardens

Moanalua Gardens Foundation
Geography of Honolulu Parks in Hawaii Protected areas of Oahu Tourist attractions in Honolulu