Park support group heads up effort to restore Lindbergh home

The Maui News
Monday, January 03, 2005

By EDWIN TANJI, City Editor

KIPAHULU – With the reconstruction of the Charles Lindbergh home in Kipahulu stalled by a dispute, the Friends of Haleakala National Park has taken over the effort to rebuild the home in the Pools at Oheo section of the park.

Charles Fein, FHNP president, said the organization already has received $60,000 in grants toward the estimated $400,000 needed to complete the project. The reconstruction was initiated five years ago with an agreement between Honolulu pilot Greg Marshall, an admirer of Charles Lindbergh, and the Historic Hawai'i Foundation.

That agreement apparently has fallen apart, with Marshall and his personal business, Source International Inc., filing last month against the Historic Hawai'i Foundation a civil suit alleging breach of contract. Marshall had purchased the two structures and set up the agreement with the foundation to seek donations to help pay for the relocation.

The foundation did not respond to an inquiry about the suit, which Marshall says was filed in 1st Circuit Court on Oahu.

Don Reeser, Haleakala National Park superintendent, said he became concerned about the delay in completing the project after a building foundation was laid two years ago for reconstruction of the primary Lindbergh residence, Argonauta.

Groundbreaking for the foundation of the reconstructed Argonauta was held Feb. 4, 2002, the 100th anniversary of Lindbergh's birth. Since the laying of a concrete foundation and the building of a section of one wall, no further work has occurred, while the materials taken from the original Kipahulu house have been left to the elements at the site.

Marshall envisioned the project after he learned that the Lindbergh family had sold the Kipahulu property and the houses were to be torn down. Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh had built the home and a Writers Cottage, designed by architect John Theodore Jacobsen based on Charles Lindbergh's concept of combining a Hawaiian structure with the kind of home Lindbergh had in New England.

The homes have 3-foot-thick rock walls, similar to the kind used in traditional Hawaiian hale. Argonauta also had a high, A-frame roof that duplicates the kind of roof found on a Swiss chalet but is also similar to the high sloping roofs used in some traditional Hawaiian structures.

Argonauta and the Writers Cottage were considered significant more because of their original owners than because of their design. But both were deemed to be architecturally and historically significant, according to the Historic Hawai'i Foundation in a fund-raising appeal issued three years ago.

Charles Lindbergh may be most famous for his July 1927 trans-Atlantic solo flight, but on Maui, he was known to be a supporter of programs to preserve Hawaiian culture and Hawaii's natural resources. He had been an active supporter of efforts to add the lands around the Oheo Gulch and Palikea Stream to the national park.

One of the key supporters of the creation of the Pools at Oheo, the late Laurance Rockefeller, whose foundation is a major supporter of the effort to relocate the Lindbergh homes to the park site. Rockefeller had pledged to support the relocation.

"Then, of course, he passed away recently. So we, the Friends and Greg Marshall, wrote letters to inquire about the status of the pledge, and we were surprised to get a letter with a check," Fein said. Through his foundation, Laurance Rockefeller has given $50,000 toward the reconstruction of Argonauta and the Writers Cottage.

"I think it's a really worthwhile project. As you know, the park has very specific plans for use of the facilities. It's a very necessary addition to the park out in Kipahulu," Fein said.

Reeser said the Haleakala park cannot use its own funds to rebuild the structures without a specific budget allocation approved by Congress and the National Park Service. But it can support the effort and is involved in planning use of the structures after they are rebuilt.

Members of the Lindbergh family have made it clear that they do not want the structures to be a memorial, and the park plan is to use the buildings as park-staff offices and a park interpretation center with the Kipahulu 'Ohana. The Kipahulu 'Ohana is a cultural group that restored ancient taro loi on parkland as an educational project.

Not all parts of the original structures can be used. Reeser said the roof shingles were made with asbestos and have to be replaced. Some of the sections were damaged when the houses were taken apart. But the bigger concern is the deterioration that will occur to house pieces lying in a field and in a container, if the reconstruction doesn't begin soon.

Reeser said several Maui organizations have indicated an interest in the restoration. The Maui Rotary Club has agreed to fund an interpretive exhibit after building is completed.

"A year and a half ago, we built the foundation and were to continue with the restoration of the homes. But then the work stopped for lack of funds," Reeser said.

"The Historic Hawai'i Foundation and Greg Marshall tried to work it out over several months. My understanding is that the Historic Hawai'i Foundation pulled out."

He approached the Friends of Haleakala National Park, a nonprofit organization that can accept tax-deductible donations, to assist in completing the project, Reeser said.

In addition to the grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Fein said the Friends has received an anonymous donation of $10,000, "so we're well on our way to raising the necessary funds to complete the building."

The environmental planner said he saw the project as both preserving a historic structure and supporting the national park.

"I had the privilege of visiting the home years ago, and it had a great deal of emotional impact for me because of the Lindbergh story. I had read his biography and was familiar with his last week out there and what Kipahulu meant to him," Fein said.

"Of course, when Don explained how they were there to do a historic-preservation project and something worthwhile for the park's future, providing a benefit for the administration of the park, it was a no-brainer. It was something that was really beneficial."

Edwin Tanji can be reached at editor@mauinews.com.

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