Historic Cooke family home converted from hidden gem to contemporary museum

The Cooke family has contributed so much during the years to the Honolulu community in business, in the arts and in education. In one form or another, most of the physical manifestations of these contributions still exist, which can be attributed to the family’s deep love for Hawaii.

One great example is the Cooke-Spalding residence in Makiki Heights. This magnificent home, built in 1925, came about because Anna Rice Cooke had given the land on Beretania Street so the Honolulu Academy of Arts (now known as the Honolulu Museum of Art) could be built on her property across from Thomas Square.

To replace her residence on Beretania, Anna Rice Cooke looked for a site close to downtown but at an elevation that would provide good movement of cooler air, provide more open space and a wide view of the ocean.

She settled on a 3.5-acre nearly barren ravine on Makiki Heights. As a person of vision, however, Cooke wisely chose Hart Wood as the architect of her hillside home. Wood already had a reputation for designing beautiful homes for some of Honolulu’s families, but his work for Cooke represented a turning point in his creative thinking.

According to architect Glenn Mason in his book "Hart Wood, Architectural Regionalism in Hawaii," the inspiration for the exquisite design of the Cooke-Spalding residence "derived from Cooke’s grand interest in Chinese art and furniture." He said Cooke "opened the door," introducing Wood to Asian art. Wood studied and researched on his own as well, and thus he concluded a five-year quest for architectural elements appropriate to Hawaii.

The best example of Wood’s intermingling of Western and Asian art elements can be seen in the classic design he and C.W. Dickey later accomplished for the Alexander & Baldwin Building downtown. He also designed the Chinese Christian Church on King Street and the Board of Water Supply offices on Beretania.

The home he designed for Cooke is described in a report to the National Register of Historic Places as "a large bungalow residence … distinctly regional in character with deep lanais and easy access to the outdoors … designed for island living with large, open living spaces and good cross ventilation."

Cooke called her home Nuumealani, which means Heavenly Terrace. It was so distinctive that it was featured in magazines such as House & Garden, Pacific Coast Architecture and Architect & Engineer.

When Cooke died in 1934 she left Nuumealani to her daughter Alice. In 1950, Alice engaged well-known Hawaii architect Vladimir Ossipoff to remodel the ground floor. Alice eventually gave the residence in 1968 to the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The Cookes give, and then the family gives some more.

The Makiki Heights ravine where the house was sited in 1925 was dramatically changed between 1928 and 1941 into a stunning three-acre garden created by an unusual gentleman, the Rev. K.H. Inagaki. Inagaki was a Christian minister who, because of an auto accident earlier in his life, supervised every aspect of his landscape design from a wheelchair, which is one reason it took so long to accomplish his creative landscape ideas.

Inagaki incorporated the Japanese doctrine of shizen (nature), using rocks as pathways, edge stones and landscape borders. He selected rocks and their placement in subtle ways to emphasize the property’s natural terrain, transforming a barren ravine into a classic Japanese stroll garden.

The Academy of Arts eventually sold the Cooke-Spalding home and it went through several hands, including some developers who planned to subdivide the property into several parcels. It was saved intact mainly because of the difficulty the developers faced in getting the necessary permits.

The Cooke-Spalding home was eventually sold to Thurston Twigg-Smith via the Honolulu Advertiser. Twigg-Smith owned the Advertiser and the News Building at South Street and Kapiolani Avenue. He had housed his extensive contemporary art collection in the building and he wanted a more suitable site for his collection.

Thus Chris Smith of CJS Architects was engaged "to develop a program that called for extensive redesign of the Spalding residence in Makiki Heights to adapt it for use as a museum of contemporary art."

He noted the exterior still resembles a home rather than a museum site, yet in the 20,000-square-foot interior space there is almost no trace of a residence. Now, it includes galleries, a gift shop, offices and a splendid cafe.

(In 2011, The Contemporary Museum gifted its assets to the Academy. Today, the structure is called Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House.)

We’ll never know, but we can speculate that Anna Rice Cooke might be thrilled with what her wonderful residence in Makiki Heights has become.

Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $10. The cafe is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Sunday noon to 2 p.m. Reservations: 237-5225.

Keep Hawaii Hawaii is a monthly column on island architecture and urban planning. Robert M. Fox, president of Fox Hawaii Inc., studied architecture in California and Japan. He was one of the founders of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation in 1974. David Cheever, owner of David Cheever Marketing, has served on the boards of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation and the Hawaii Architectural Foundation. Send comments to keephawaiihawaii@staradvertiser.com.