Posted on: Thursday, June 13, 2002
Lindbergh house historic project moves forward
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
Plans to restore the former East Maui home of Charles Lindbergh and move it to the Kipahulu coastal area of Haleakala National Park took a significant step forward with the release of an environmental assessment, park officials said yesterday.
The park has agreed to accept as a donation the home Lindbergh dubbed Argonauta, as well as the nearby writer's cottage of wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, provided that all costs for moving and restoration, as well as an endowment for annual maintenance, are raised by the Historic Hawai'i Foundation.
The foundation has been working to raise $500,000 for the move and restoration. A private donor has offered to buy the structures and donate them to the park via the foundation.
Plans call for moving the home and cottage to a site near the park's Kipahulu Visitor Center, about a mile from its present location.
Park Superintendent Don Reeser said the structures will be called the Kipahulu Conservation Center. Part of the home, he said, will be reserved for exhibits that tell of, among other things, Lindbergh's role in helping the National Park Service acquire its Kipahulu lands.
Argonauta and the writer's cottage were built in 1970. Designed by the late John Theodore Jacobsen, the house was built with 3-foot thick lava rock walls in a design that merges the style of other Lindbergh homes with that of the Hawaiian 1850s-era missionary churches.
The Lindberghs had planned to retire to Maui and vacationed there frequently, staying with retired Pan American executive Sam Pryor, from whom they acquired five acres to build their home.
In 1973, Charles Lindbergh was diagnosed with cancer. He died in Hana on Aug. 26, 1974, and was buried near his home in the Palapala Ho'omau Congregational Church cemetery.
Reeser said he hopes the move can be completed by the end of the year.
The comment deadline for the environmental assessment is July 26. Comments can be mailed to Reeser (Attn: Kipahulu Conservation Center EA) P.O. Box 369, Makawao, HI 96768, faxed to (808) 572-1304 or e-mailed to don_reeser@nps.gov (Attn: Kipahulu EA).
