Salvation Army Waiʻoli Tea Room
Historic Honolulu tea room reopened as Waiʻoli Kitchen and Bake Shop.
For decades, a restaurant called the Salvation Army Waiʻoli Tea Room served diners in Honolulu from 1922 until 2014. After a few years of closure, it reopened in November 2018 under the name Waiʻoli Kitchen and Bake Shop. The eatery occupies a historic structure at 2950 Mānoa Road, where Oʻahu Avenue meets Mānoa Road on Oahu.
Quick Facts
- Location
- 2950 Mānoa Road, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Built
- 1922
- Added
- October 30, 1998
Facts from the source article.
History
In 1922, the Salvation Army opened the Waiʻoli Tea Room in Mānoa Valley as part of a program that trained young women in job skills. It joined other local care institutions like the Kaiulani Home for Girls, the Castle Home, and the Catholic Orphanage. The tea room’s idea came from British Columbia emigrants living in Hawaii, who used "high tea" and "afternoon tea" interchangeably. Over time, it became a favorite spot for both locals and visitors.
The historic building
This single-story bungalow, built from lava rock and shingles, includes an open lānai, a main room with a high open-beam ceiling, a fireplace, and tall double-hung windows, plus a smaller room with its own fireplace. The Honolulu firm Emory & Webb designed it to blend in with the surrounding homes. Walter Leavitte Emory, born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, moved to Hawaii in 1898. Marshall Hickman Webb was born in Philadelphia. Their partnership began between 1908 and 1910, and they created many Honolulu buildings, most famously the 1922 Hawaii Theatre. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 30, 1998. It was originally L-shaped, but a 1926 addition made it U-shaped; the interior open lānai was later roofed and enclosed. The present entrance was added in 1960.
Robert Louis Stevenson's grass house
On the Waiʻoli grounds next to the restaurant stands the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Grass House, a replica of an original guest house. That first structure was built at the ʻĀinahau estate by Archibald Scott Cleghorn, Princess Kaʻiulani’s father. Stevenson and his family stayed there in 1889, and he spent considerable time with Kaʻiulani. After Cleghorn’s death in 1910, his will gave the estate to the Territory of Hawaii, requiring it to remain a park in Kaʻiulani’s memory. The hut was sold at auction in 1926 and moved to its present site. The Salvation Army fully restored it, but it needed a complete rebuild in 1983. High winds destroyed it in 2003, and it was finally rebuilt and reopened in 2012.
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