LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Grove Farm Homestead, a museum of the community that built up around one of Hawai'i's early sugar plantations, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Jan. 22.

Grove Farm Homestead was the bequest to the community by Mabel Wilcox, the niece of the founder of the former sugar company Grove Farm, which he launched in 1864. She was born at the homestead on Nawiliwili Road in Lihu'e. She became a nurse and was the first Hawai'i resident to study at Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School.

She worked as a public health nurse on Kaua'i, served with the American Red Cross in Europe during World War I and helped found two of the island's three hospitals. With her sister, Elsie, in 1952 she founded the Waioli Museum for the old Wilcox family mission house in Hanalei. Mabel Wilcox later formed Grove Farm Homestead to preserve the historic home and related facilities where the plantation started. She died in 1978 at age 96.

The museum's first director, Barnes Riznik, has written her biography, "Mabel Wilcox, R.N.; Her Legacy of Caring." He will sign copies of the book at the open house.