Photo Every Day 2026

We are officially winding down on our photos from Hawaii, but I still have a few more fun photos to share. This was a photo of Mokuʻaikaua Church. It may not look like much, but it is actually one of the most historically important buildings on the Big Island!

The story of this building starts in 1820, when the first group of American Protestant missionaries arrived on the islands. Rev. Asa Thurston and his wife Lucy came ashore near what is now Kailua Pier after a grueling 163-day voyage from Boston aboard the brig Thaddeus. Their journey was inspired in part by Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia, a young Hawaiian who had studied in New England and dreamed of bringing Christianity back to his homeland. The landing spot is sometimes called “Hawaii’s Plymouth Rock.”

King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) and Queen Regent Kaʻahumanu gave the missionaries permission to teach. Early services were held in simple thatched structures. A wooden church was later built on this site (on land provided by Royal Governor Kuakini) around 1823–1826, but it burned in 1835.

What you see today was built between 1835 and 1837 under Governor Kuakini’s direction, with the help of thousands of local people. The walls are made of lava rock held together with lime mortar made from burned coral; some of the stones were reportedly recycled from a nearby heiau. The heavy roof beams are native ʻōhiʻa wood, cut in the upland forests on the slopes of Hualālai and dragged down by hand. The church was dedicated on February 4, 1837, and it remains the oldest surviving Christian church structure in Hawaii.

The tall steeple is a later addition (1926), and the stone archway out front was added in 1910 to mark the 90th anniversary of the missionaries’ arrival. I did not go inside of the building, but apparently there is beautiful koa woodwork and a real sense of the meeting of two cultures that shaped early 19th-century Hawaii throughout. I can imagine that would be a sight to behold!

Standing right in the middle of Historic Kailua Village, across from Huliheʻe Palace and just a short walk from the pier, Mokuʻaikaua is both an active church and a living landmark. It’s hard to walk past the steeple without feeling the weight of the history that started right here!