The fire that rampaged through Lahaina on Tuesday delivered a devastating blow to Hawaii’s historical and cultural resources.

The area in and around Front Street — designated a National Historic Landmark since 1962 — was leveled by the massive overnight blaze, and so were its historic buildings, landmarks and sites.

A spokesperson for Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen wasn’t ready late Wednesday afternoon to list the landmarks that were destroyed by the fire, saying access to the area was still restricted and crews were still actively fighting the fire.

But Tamara Paltin, who represents Lahaina on the Maui County Council, didn’t hold back while delivering food and supplies to West Maui via boat.

“Basically everything from Safeway to the Chart House is gone,” she said in a brief phone interview.

Some of the lost historical sites, she said, include:

>> Waiola Church, established in 1823 by High Chiefess Keopuolani.

>> Maria Lanakila Catholic Church, which was established in 1846 by the Rev. Aubert Bouillon of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and officially dedicated in 1858.

>> Lahaina Jodo Mission, which was established in a private house in 1912 to propagate Buddhism in Lahaina. The temple moved to its present location in 1931.

>> Na Aikana Cultural Center, which occupies a building that once served as a soup kitchen for plantation workers during an ILWU strike against the Pioneer Mill.

>> Pioneer Inn, built in 1901 by George Alan Freeland.

Other structures that appear to be lost include:

>> The Old Lahaina Courthouse, which opened in 1860 as a customs house for whaling and trade ships as well as a center for government offices and court functions during the monarchy period.

>> The Baldwin Home Museum, the oldest home on the island, built between 1834 and 1835 for missionaries Dwight Baldwin and Charlotte Fowler Baldwin.

Outside the courthouse was a massive banyan tree, which was more than 150 years old. It was still standing Wednesday but it was heavily charred and a likely victim. The Emma Farden Sharpe Hula Festival was supposed to be held Saturday under the tree, but the event’s fate is now uncertain.

Kumu hula Roselle Bailey of Wailuku said she hopes the event will go forward so that it can help uplift the people of Lahaina.

“It was sad to see the town get demolished,” Bailey said, adding that the destruction included her childhood (Lindsey family) home south of Lahaina Town at Kamani and Polanui. “It holds all of our history and spirit.”

“Our family is fine,” she added. “The ornaments on the land are burned down. It leaves time to regroup and rebuild and think anew.”

This was not the first time Lahaina was destroyed by fire.

In the early morning of New Year’s Day 1919, fire swept through the town, destroying more than 30 buildings, according to historical accounts, before it was stopped by the townspeople.

The devastating fire led to the organization of Maui’s fire department and the implementation of other fire safety measures.

“We absolutely will come back,” said Theo Morrison, the longtime executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation. “We have a history of doing that.”

Morrison, who didn’t know the fate of her own Lahaina home Wednesday morning, said the town’s history can be divided into six separate but sometimes overlapping eras: pre-contact, monarchy, missionary, whaling, plantation and tourism.

The different eras, she said, brought a different group of people who recognized a community blessed with calm ocean waters and fertile grounds. Each era ended with a slump, she said, but the town always reinvented itself.

These eras left a mosaic of history, artifacts and landmarks scattered throughout the town, but now most of them may be lost.

The Lahaina Restoration Foundation was in the middle of several restoration projects, including the just-completed $20,000 repainting of the Baldwin Home Museum, part of a $500,000 effort that was set to get underway soon.

“The shingles (for a new roof) are sitting on Oahu right now,” Morrison said.

Foundation workers also were preparing a $500,000 exhibit to be installed at the Old Lahaina Courthouse. The exhibit was going to describe Moku‘ula, the 1837-1847 home of King Kamehameha III that was rediscovered under a baseball field at Lahaina’s Malu‘ulu o Lele Park.

With the fire, however, the projects are in limbo.

“This is the biggest blow we’ve ever had as a community. It’s beyond comprehending,” she said. “With the lost homes, jobs, a big chunk of the economy, it’s a game-changer.

“But we’re resilient, and we will come back.”

Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, called Lahaina’s historic significance vast, crossing many periods of time. Its buildings reflect its past as the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, the early days of western contact through whaling and shipping, followed by the influence of the early American missionaries and the sugar plantations.

“We are heartsick at the reports of the incalculable losses to the people of Lahaina and all of Maui,” Faulkner said in a statement. “Our best wishes go to those who have lost family and friends, homes and businesses. The impact to Hawai‘i’s historic fabric is devastating and leaves us reeling with the depth of the loss.”

Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chair Carmen “Hulu” Lindsey, who represents Maui on the board of trustees, said OHA is praying for those who lost their homes, property and livelihoods.

OHA, she said in a statement, is assessing community needs and is prepared to help.

“As kanaka, there are truly no words to describe the devastation and immeasurable losses in Lahaina, a national historic landmark, historic district, and former capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom,” she said. “Lahaina holds some of the most historically significant cultural properties and highest-ranking sacred remains of our ancestors. There is so much history that will be forever lost, a history that tethers all of us, young and old, not only to the ‘aina, but to ourselves and to each other.

“The fires of today are in part due to the climate crisis, a history of colonialism in our islands, and the loss of our right to steward our ‘aina and wai. Today we have watched our precious cultural assets, our physical connection to our ancestors, our places of remembering — all go up in smoke. The same western forces that tried to erase us as a people now threaten our survival with their destructive practices.”