Hawaiian Cruise - Kauai

Our next island stop was Kauai - the history of this island has been impacted by the development of sugar plantations in the 19th & 20th centuries.

We chose a shore excursion which included a visit to Grove Farm, which is an historical sugar plantation site on Kauai.  Founded by George N. Wilcox in the 1860s, the farm was chopped out of a grove of trees, giving the farm its name.  The American Civil War ruined the sugar plantations in the American South, and George had the education and vision to transform his acreage into a thriving sugar plantation.  It became a great source of income for Hawaii.

George N. Wilcox - from the Grove Far Website - History section

George was the son of Christian missionaries to Hawaii (remember the stories in James Michener's "Hawaii"), and was sent to study engineering on the mainland.  The first thing he did to the farm was to engineer an extensive irrigation system to bring water from the mountains to the fields.  Over the decades he built many structures for the running of the plantation including housing, equipment sheds, offices, guest cottages, animal pens, vegetable and fruit gardens, and pastures for cattle and horses.

Grove Farm - taken from the website

The buildings and the home have been restored, preserved and established as an historic site and living museum with the main house, farm, office, workers homes and private cottages beautifully maintained amongst the tropical gardens, orchards and rolling lawns.  It is one of Hawaii's earliest sugar plantations.  We had an excellent tour guide who gave us a sense of the life in the late 1800's and early 1900s.

Approach to the Main House from the Parking Area



Guest Cottage

Valley from behind the Main House

Grove Farm Main House - Living Room

Touring the Main House was a delight - the native "Koa" hardwood had been used throughout the house for flooring and window trim and it was gorgeous.  Beautiful graining and stain.  The Koa tree is now a protected species.  The rooms in the house were large and cooled by breezes from the verandas.  The home was very elegantly furnished.

Library

Kitchen cupboard holding pots and cooking utensils

Kitchen Stove - reminds me of the one my mother had when I was a young girl.

George Wilcox never married, but brought his brother, Sam, and Sam's wife Emma to the farm.  Sam and Emma raised six children on the farm, of which two of the girls never married and lived on the far, playing significant roles in politics, historic preservation, education and public health on the islands.