A small piece of history tucked away in Manoa — a grass hut that once housed author Robert Louis Stevenson during his late 19th century trips to Hawaii — is now restored and reopened to the public after being flattened by a strong windstorm nearly nine years ago.

A dedication ceremony held Thursday on The Salvation Army grounds behind the Wai‘oli Tea Room included a Hawaiian blessing for the new hut that once stood near the home of Princess Miriam Likelike and her husband, Archibald Cleghorn, on land in Waikiki that is now the International Marketplace.

Stevenson, known for penning classic novels such as "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped," was a close friend of Cleghorn’s.

Clarence Ing, a volunteer for the Salvation Army who spearheaded the recent restoration project, estimated that three or four memorial huts have replaced the original one that Stevenson stayed in since it first arrived on the Salvation Army campus more than 80 years ago.

Ing said he had a hard time getting the project off the ground because funding was hard to come by.

"What we wanted to do was to get contractors to donate their time and materials and everything else," he said.

Eventually, contractor Matthew Houar of Tropical Wholesale Co. offered his company’s time and resources to do the job.

"It took a lot of time because there was a bunch of old ones underneath the old one," Houar said. "(But) we built it strong. … We built it up to last forever."

Although the new hut is made of modern, more structurally sound materials than the original, Ing said special work was done to make sure it remained authentic.

Ing said sturdy pipes were covered with stucco to give the appearance of ohia logs, and he spent years trying to locate a large supply of pili grass, a native Hawaiian material used in building grass huts.

When the original hut came up for sale in 1926, Salvation Army Commander Rachel Payne bought it because she thought the hut’s historical significance could attract tourists to the nearby tea room.

"It was very popular for a long while and so we wanted to remake it and have the same kind of popularity," Ing said.