Manoa Heritage Center
A heritage and botanical site in Mānoa Valley, Honolulu, preserving the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House, the Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau, and their surrounding cultural landscape.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
Manoa Heritage Center is a heritage and educational site in Mānoa Valley on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii. Its principal significance comes from the combination of an early twentieth-century historic residence, an ancient Hawaiian heiau, and a landscape that connects architectural, archaeological, botanical, and cultural history. The center is associated with the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House, also known as Kualii or Kualiʻi, and Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau. The Cooke house was built in 1911–1912 for Charles Montague Cooke Jr., commonly known as Monty Cooke. His father, businessman Charles Montague Cooke of Castle & Cooke, had given him a substantial tract of land on a ridge in Mānoa Valley in 1902. The property already contained the ancient heiau. Monty Cooke commissioned architects Walter Emory and Marshall Webb to design a Tudor-style residence on the hillside above it. The building used locally quarried basalt lava rock for its basement and ground floor, with half-timber and stucco construction above. Its prominent chimneys, entry bays, and porte-cochere give it a distinctive architectural character within Honolulu’s historic landscape. Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau is a square, elevated ceremonial structure associated with ancient Hawaiian religious and social practice. The name has been interpreted in several ways, including references to Kū and an ʻōʻō, or digging stick. The heiau is approximately 12 metres across and rises about 6 metres above the surrounding rocky clearing. Anthropologist Kenneth Emory of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum estimated that the structure could be about 1,000 years old. Historical descriptions also associate the gardens and wider landscape with food production that helped sustain the population of the Waikīkī ahupuaʻa. The property entered a preservation phase in the late twentieth century. In 1985, the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places. In 1992, owners Samuel Alexander Cooke and Mary Cooke acquired the land and undertook work to restore the heavily overgrown heiau. Preservationist Nathan Napoka was commissioned to reconstruct its walls, while stonemason Billy Fields used survey drawings from the 1930s and rocks found on the site. This approach linked the reconstruction to documented historic conditions and local materials rather than treating the heiau as a generic garden feature. The Manoa Heritage Center was established in 1996 to manage the property and provide educational tours. Its public identity is therefore based less on commercial products than on stewardship, interpretation, and place-based learning. The center’s offerings are oriented toward guided visits and education concerning Hawaiian history, the heiau, the Cooke residence, the valley’s cultural landscape, and the site’s plant life. The National Register boundaries were expanded in 2000 to include Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau, formally recognizing the close relationship between the house and the ancient religious site. Manoa Heritage Center is best understood as a local cultural-heritage institution rather than a conventional consumer brand. Its value proposition is the preservation and interpretation of a specific Oʻahu place, bringing together Hawaiian cultural heritage, historic architecture, archaeology, and botanical landscape. Publicly available reference material does not establish a broader commercial footprint, a parent corporation, a stock-market listing, or a detailed corporate executive structure.
History
The history of Manoa Heritage Center is inseparable from the Mānoa Valley property it manages. The site contains both the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House and Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau, creating an unusually concentrated record of Hawaiian cultural history, historic architecture, and landscape use. The heiau predates the modern residence by many centuries. It is a square, raised stone structure associated with ancient Hawaiian religious practice. The name Kūkaʻōʻō has several possible interpretations, including meanings connected with Kū and a digging stick. The structure measures roughly 12 metres across and stands approximately 6 metres above the level of the rocky clearing around it. Kenneth Emory, an anthropologist associated with the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, estimated that the heiau may be about 1,000 years old. Accounts of the surrounding gardens indicate that the landscape also played a productive role in the Waikīkī ahupuaʻa, supporting the area’s population through cultivation. The later residential history began in 1902, when Charles Montague Cooke, a prominent businessman associated with Castle & Cooke, gave his son Charles Montague Cooke Jr. a large tract of Mānoa Valley land. The property included the existing heiau. After Monty Cooke’s marriage to Lila Lefferts, he commissioned architects Walter Emory and Marshall Webb to design a substantial residence. Construction took place in 1911 and 1912. The house, named Kualii or Kualiʻi after an ancient Hawaiian chief, used basalt lava rock quarried on the property for its lower levels and combined half-timber and stucco on the upper floors. Its Tudor-inspired form included substantial chimneys, gabled entry elements, and a porte-cochere. The house received formal historic recognition in 1985, when the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House and Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau listing. In 1992, Samuel Alexander Cooke, a grandson of Charles Montague Cooke Jr., and Mary Cooke purchased the land. By that time, the heiau’s walls had become badly overgrown. The owners commissioned preservationist Nathan Napoka to lead a reconstruction effort. Stonemason Billy Fields rebuilt the walls using rocks found on the site and survey drawings dating from the 1930s. The work sought to recover the legibility of the historic structure while retaining a direct relationship with the original materials and documented form. The Manoa Heritage Center was established in 1996 to manage the property and make its significance available through educational tours. Its creation provided an institutional framework for conserving and interpreting the house, heiau, gardens, and broader cultural landscape. Rather than presenting the site solely as an architectural attraction, the center’s role encompasses the interaction of Hawaiian history, traditional religious architecture, archaeology, historic preservation, and botanical knowledge. The National Register listing was expanded in 2000 so that its boundaries included Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau. This change reinforced the historical relationship between the residence and the older Hawaiian site and recognized the importance of considering the property as a connected cultural landscape. The center’s public-facing identity continues to rest on guided interpretation and educational access. Available reference material does not provide a complete account of its staffing, governance, visitor numbers, funding, or later program changes, so those aspects remain undocumented in this dossier.
- 2000
Historic-register boundaries expanded
[3]The National Register boundaries were expanded to include Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau as part of the recognized historic property.
- 1996
Manoa Heritage Center established
[1]The Manoa Heritage Center was established to manage the historic property and provide educational tours.
- 1992
Preservation work on Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau
[1]Samuel Alexander Cooke and Mary Cooke acquired the land and commissioned work to reconstruct the heiau’s overgrown walls using on-site stone and historic survey drawings.
- 1985
National Register listing
[2]The Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House and associated property were listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
- 1911
Construction of the Cooke residence begins
[2]Architects Walter Emory and Marshall Webb began work on a Tudor-style residence for Charles Montague Cooke Jr. Construction continued through 1912.
- 1902
Cooke family receives the Mānoa Valley property
[2]Charles Montague Cooke gave his son Charles Montague Cooke Jr. a large tract of land in Mānoa Valley that included the ancient Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau.
Products and positioning
A place-based heritage and education institution preserving a culturally significant Mānoa Valley landscape through historic-site stewardship, interpretation, and guided learning.
Heritage education · 1996
Educational tours
Guided visits are the center’s principal public-facing offering. They provide interpretation of the Mānoa Valley site, including Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau, the Cooke residence, the gardens, and the connections between Hawaiian cultural history, historic preservation, and the natural landscape.
Cultural heritage · 1996
Kūkaʻōʻō Heiau interpretation
The center interprets the ancient heiau as a central element of the property. The site is a raised, square stone structure associated with ancient Hawaiian religious practice and is presented within its historical and landscape context rather than as an isolated architectural object.
Historic-site education · 1996
Historic house and landscape interpretation
Programming also addresses the Charles Montague Cooke Jr. House, its 1911–1912 construction, Tudor-style design, locally quarried basalt, and relationship to the older heiau and Mānoa Valley landscape.
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