Question: Which Hawaii church played a substantial role in creating 20 other local churches, nonprofits, schools and a retirement home?

That’s an extraordinary number of “seedlings,” as the church calls them.

The answer is Central Union Church. It traces its roots to a “House of God” created in 1833 to provide wholesome activities for whalers and seafarers. More than 140 whaling boats ported in Honolulu and Lahaina each year back then. That meant thousands of men were looking for “entertainment,” and that usually meant liquor and women.

It was a popular belief in the 1830s that sailors left their morals behind when they passed South America. Others said, “There is no God west of Cape Horn.”

The Congregational missionaries at Kawaiaha‘o were busy tending to the spiritual needs of Hawaiians. They asked the American Seamen’s Friends Society for help. The group was created in Boston, and by 1837 had sent out its first three chaplains, to Canton, China; Marseilles, France; and Honolulu.

In Honolulu it provided an alternative to bars and saloons and was called Bethel Chapel.

The chapel was on the waterfront, makai of King Street on what today is Bethel Street. Bethel means “House of God” in Hebrew. The pastor, John Diell, and his wife, Caroline Platt, lived a few blocks away on what became Chaplain Lane, near Fort Street.

They built a 48-by-30-foot, two-story chapel with coral blocks. It had a 300-pound bell in a tower, a parish hall, offices and reading rooms well supplied with newspapers, books and magazines. It housed Hawaii’s first museum. The chapel could hold 200 parishioners.

When Diell hoisted its blue flag emblazoned with “Bethel” in white letters, it was seen as Honolulu’s principal waterfront landmark, say authors Jean Dabagh and Suzanne Case in the book “Central Union Church.”

OAHU BETHEL CHURCH AND FORT STREET CHURCH

For English-speaking foreign residents in Honolulu, Diell organized the Oahu Bethel Church in 1837. It was the first church for foreigners in Honolulu and was completely separate from the Seamen’s Bethel, though they shared the building.

Samuel Chenery Damon succeeded Diell and led the two congregations for nearly 50 years. Damon published a newspaper, later called The Friend, which was distributed for more than 100 years, until 1954. At the time, it was the oldest newspaper in the Pacific, according to Dabagh and Case.

In the Bethel Chapel, Damon acted as Oahu’s postal service until the kingdom created its own in 1851. Damon held on to letters for future author Herman Melville and hundreds of others until they could be picked up when ships came into port.

As Honolulu and the chapel grew, the local parishioners built their own church in 1852 on the corner of Fort and Beretania streets. They called it the Fort Street Church, and it was across the street from the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Peace.

The Fort Street Church had double Gothic doors and a large pipe organ, and was topped with a tall spire. Pews were auctioned off to the highest-bidding families.

MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL

In 1865 a school was founded in the church basement, called the Fort Street English Day School. Four years later the school outgrew its space and moved to larger quarters a few blocks mauka, on the corner of Fort (now Pali Highway) and School streets.

School Street was named for the Royal School, which moved to the corner of Punchbowl and School streets in 1850. The Fort Street School occupied the Ewa end of the then two-block-long street.

The Fort Street School continued to expand, and the lower level split off to become Princess Victoria Kaiulani Elementary School in Palama in 1899. The upper grades took the name Honolulu High School and later McKinley High School.

CENTRAL UNION CHURCH

In 1886 the original Bethel Church and much of the waterfront were destroyed in a fire. The congregation proposed uniting with the Fort Street Church, and that was realized in 1887.

The 337 members voted on a new name. Central Union Church received the most votes, beating out Church of the Redeemer.

Within a decade the new Central Union Church outgrew its space and moved to the corner of Richards and Beretania streets, across from Washington Place on what today is the state Capitol grounds.

By 1922 the church had grown to more than 1,000 members and moved one last time: to the former estate of Benjamin Franklin Dillingham, at Punahou and Beretania streets. The estate, called Woodlawn, had been a dairy.

SEEDLING NONPROFITS

After fire destroyed the Bethel Church, there was no ministry for sailors in Honolulu. Central Union member C.V. Sturdevant felt the Salvation Army might be able to help. He canvassed friends for donations, resulting in the first six Salvation Army workers arriving in 1894.

Central Union members built a chapel in Palama in 1896. Following the Chinatown fire in 1900, Palama Chapel evolved into Palama Settlement.

Honolulu’s first YMCA was organized in March 1869 at a meeting in the Fort Street Church.

The Honolulu Boy Choir was founded in 1974 by Roy and Nyle Hallman and comprised boys from many cultures and backgrounds. Central Union Church was the choir’s home base for most of its years.

The group entertained islandwide for 40 years.

The choir also traveled the world, bringing their music and aloha to Japan, China, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Guam, Canada, Samoa and the U.S. mainland, said Central Union spokeswoman Evelyn Aczon Hao.

Habitat for Humanity was launched in Hawaii in about 1978 at Central Union Church. First lady Roslyn Carter was there for the ceremonies.

In 1979 Central Union and eight other churches helped to start a new service of delivering hot meals to homebound seniors. Today Meals on Wheels continues to serve a growing senior population throughout the islands.

The Arcadia senior living facility came to be in 1965 after the Dillingham Corp., Punahou School and Central Union Church combined their resources. Arcadia became an independent nonprofit organization in 1985.

Kindergarten and Children’s Aid Association, or KCAA, was founded in 1895.

KCAA offered the first teacher training and free kindergarten to all of Hawaii’s children, according to Hao.

SEEDLING CHURCHES

Central Union helped bring two religious orders to Hawaii and gave birth to several churches.

In 1876 newly arrived Chinese Christian immigrants were welcomed by the Rev. Damon. Over time this became the First Chinese Church of Christ on King Street.

A mission for Japanese contract laborers in 1885 matured to become Nuuanu Congregational Church.

Another mission developed into Makiki Christian Church, now on Pensacola Street. A chapel and settlement house in Kalihi in 1908 became Kalihi Union Church.

A Windward branch became independent in 1963 as Windward United Church of Christ. In about 1915 Central Union launched a mission for farmers living in Manoa. In 1946 it became the Manoa Valley Church.

Central Union also helped bring the first Anglicans to Hawaii in 1840 and Methodists in 1857. It played a role in founding the Hawaii Korean Central Church, PATCH (Parents & Children Together), the Variety School of Hawaii and La Pietra, Hawaii School for Girls.

That’s an incredible number of organizations — more than 20 by my count — all growing out of a church built 184 years ago to give whalers and seamen something wholesome to do.

Bob Sigall, author of “The Companies We Keep” series of books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories of Hawaii people, places and companies. Contact him via email at sigall@yahoo.com.