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Rare safe box to survive Lahaina wildfires holds a 'trove' of undiscovered history

During a recent fire debris cleanup at the Old Lahaina Courthouse, a safe deposit box that was previously believed to be empty was found, in fact, to be a treasure trove of historical information.
Lahaina Restoration Foundation
During a recent fire debris cleanup at the Old Lahaina Courthouse, a safe deposit box that was previously believed to be empty was found, in fact, to be a treasure trove of historical information.

When the Lahaina Restoration Foundation took over management of the Old Lahaina Courthouse more than 20 years ago, it was told repeatedly that a safe deposit box in the basement prison area of the building was empty.

But during recent fire debris processing, construction workers and archeologists urged opening it up, just to double-check.

“And so they did. And then we found out it wasn't empty after all this time,” laughed Kimberly Flook, deputy executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation.

About 160 historic tax and payment records were found inside the safe deposit box.
Lahaina Restoration Foundation
About 160 historic tax and payment records were found inside the safe deposit box.

Turns out the safe contained more than 150 papers, with names and payment records.

“For the most part, they were tax receipts from about 1916 to 1922 for Lahaina, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi.”

Flook called it a treasure trove of history that they plan to explore.

“So it's like, how much this gentleman paid for his dog tax, his road tax, his school tax, his property tax,” Flook explained.

“And so we can actually see the names, and we know a lot of the names from other histories. Our plan is to actually transcribe these pieces, pull those names out, and then start looking to find out, ‘Okay, where was this person's property? Who was this person at that era?’”

“Our community has gotten really excited about the information that we haven't even had a chance to look at, but the possibility of the stories that will be in these papers,” she continued.

Once restored and digitally archived, the documents will be searchable and available to the public through the foundation’s website.

Lahaina Restoration Foundation

The fact that the safe survived the fire is remarkable in itself. Flook is aware of only two safes in Lahaina that didn’t get destroyed.

“To have a set of papers actually survive, having seen safe after safe after safe through town fail and have what inside burn, was just an amazing little bright light,” Flook told HPR.

The Lahaina Restoration Foundation owns or manages 13 historic Lahaina sites like the Baldwin Home, Old Lahaina Courthouse and Wo Hing Chinese Museum. After operating in Lahaina for more than 60 years, the organization lost a majority of those buildings, archives and artifacts in the 2023 wildfire.

“We probably had 30,000, 40,000 objects. And I would say maybe 1,500 objects are going to be recoverable,” she said.

But Flook stressed that the history itself is not lost.

“The touchstones, some of the visual cues to history and culture, absolutely got destroyed, we took a huge hit. But the stories themselves, the people that were in those stories, the culture that was in that story — going strong.”

Another positive in preserving Lahaina’s history took place during the pandemic, when the foundation digitized its archive, scanning hundreds of photos and records.

Even though many of the original items burned, the archive remains preserved digitally, many of which are now available to the community online.

However, the physical damages to Lahaina Restoration Foundation’s buildings are extensive, and vary depending on their location and structure. For the courthouse, damages were in the middle range, according to Flook.

“It was a working courthouse up into the 1980s, so it had a lot of modern things like steel beams. The steel beams melted, and actually looked like spaghetti, it was so hot, but it is a secure, standing building that we really feel good about bringing that one back,” she said.

“Then Baldwin would be at the other end of the continuum. It was a lime mortar building, and had very little modern materials in its construction. Built originally in the 1830s… and it didn't hold up quite as well. So it's the one that needs the most shoring, the most care, the most light touch, as we bring it back.”

Flook estimates rebuilding the Lahaina Restoration Foundation’s sites after the fire will cost $60 million to $80 million.

Part of that will be covered by FEMA funds, while the organization will be fundraising the rest. She said it will likely be at least eight years until the first building is restored.

Catherine Cluett Pactol is a general assignment reporter covering Maui Nui for Hawaiʻi Public Radio. Contact her at cpactol@hawaiipublicradio.org.
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