Wo Hing Museum

Lahaina


This three-story temple, built in 1912 as a meeting hall for the benevolent Chee Kung Tong society, gave Chinese immigrants a place to preserve their cultural identity, celebrate festivities and socialize in their native tongue. After WWII, Lahaina’s ethnic Chinese population spread far and wide and the temple fell into decline. Now restored and turned into a cultural museum, it houses an intricately carved 11-panel screen from the 1850s, jade Fu dog statues weighing 300lb each and early 1900s artifacts.

The tin-roof cookhouse out back holds a tiny theater showing films of Hawaii shot by Thomas Edison in 1898 and 1906, soon after he invented the motion-picture camera. These grainy black-and-white shots are surprisingly entertaining, capture poignant images of old Hawaii, including paniolo (cowboys) herding cattle, cane workers in the fields and everyday street scenes.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lahaina attractions

1. Seamens' House & Hospital

0.27 MILES

Kamehameha III had this building erected in 1833 to give seamen and whalers a place to congregate away from the baleful stares of the missionaries in the…

2. Masters’ Reading Room

0.27 MILES

Built in the 1830s, this coral block and stone building was used by ship captains as a club for hanging out between seafaring adventures. Restored in 1970…

3. Hauola Stone

0.28 MILES

Well, that doesn't look entirely comfortable. At the northern shoreline of the small plaza behind the Lahaina Public Library, look beneath the water’s…

4. Baldwin House

0.29 MILES

Built in 1834–35, the Baldwin House is the oldest surviving Western-style building in Lahaina. It served as the home of Reverend Dwight Baldwin, a…

5. Lahaina Public Library Grounds

0.3 MILES

The gardens here were once a royal taro field, where Kamehameha II toiled in the mud to instill in his subjects the dignity of labor. Today they offer a…

6. Brick Palace

0.3 MILES

The first Western-style building in Hawaii, the Brick Palace was erected by Kamehameha I around 1800 to keep watch on arriving ships. Despite the name,…

7. Pioneer Mill Smokestack

0.31 MILES

The hard-to-miss Pioneer Mill smokestack is a local icon. Outdoor exhibits spotlight equipment and vehicles used on the company's sugar plantation, in…

8. Lahaina Lighthouse

0.33 MILES

Directly in front of the Pioneer Inn is the site of the first lighthouse in the Pacific. It was commissioned in 1840 to aid whaling ships pulling into the…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "usa/hawaii/lahaina/attractions/wo-hing-museum/a/poi-sig/1298942/1333407",
      "destination": "Lahaina",
      "continent": "North-America",
      "country": "USA",
      "region": "Hawaii",
      "city": "Lahaina",
      "position": "superzone"
    }