King's Road

When the missionary William Ellis arrived in Lahaina in 1823, he made the following note of his first impressions of the royal capital:

The appearance of Lahaina from the anchorage is singularly romantic and beautiful. A fine sandy beach stretches along the margin of the sea, lined for a considerable distance with houses, and adorned with shady clumps of kou trees, or waving groves of cocoa-nuts...the whole district for about three miles, is one continued garden, laid out in beds of taro, potatoes, yams, sugar cane or cloth plant.

The majority of Lahaina's 2,400 population lived along King's Road--or Alanui Moi--in little grass shacks, with the Royal Fishpond and Palace located in what is now downtown Lahaina. The first European-style building in all of the Hawaiian islands, the royal house was a modest two-story brick structure made of fired bricks of Maui dirt. The royal family did not acually live in the royal house, which felt too strange and confining; instead, they lived in a grass house next door to it and used the brick building for other purposes.

Lahaina's present-day street names were bestowed upon them during the reign of Kamehameha III at the height of the whaling era, when Honolulu became the official capital of Hawaii in 1850. King's Road became  known as Front Street, and the days of living in grass shacks gradually passed to be replaced with many fine Lahaina homes, from modest cottages to luxury residences.

Contact Robert Myers at Robert@MauiHomeSales.com or (808) 283-3067
for more information Lahaina homes and other Oceanfront Maui Real Estate.